The piranha gut microbiome provides a selective lens into river water biodiversity

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 21518 - 10
• Main Authors: da Silva, Sheila, Vuong, Paton, Amaral, João Ricardo Vidal, da Silva, Vicente Almeida Serafim, de Oliveira, Selma Soares, Vermelho, Alane Beatriz, Beale, David John, Bissett, Andrew, Whiteley, Andrew Steven, Kaur, Parwinder, Macrae, Andrew
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 14.09.2024; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/158; 631/1647; 631/326; 631/61; 704/158; 704/172; Amazon river microbiome; Animals; Bacteria - classification; Bacteria - genetics; Bacteria - isolation & purification; Biodiversity; Biotechnology; Fish; Gastrointestinal Microbiome - genetics; Host-associated microbiome; Humanities and Social Sciences; Intestinal microflora; Metabolism; Metagenome; Metagenomics; Metagenomics - methods; Microbial activity; Microbiomes; multidisciplinary; Rivers; Rivers - microbiology; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Serrasalmus rhombeus; Temporal variations; Water depth; Water Microbiology; Amazon river microbiome; Metagenomics; Biotechnology; Host-associated microbiome; Serrasalmus rhombeus
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-72329-8

Advances in omics technologies have enabled the in-depth study of microbial communities and their metabolic profiles from all environments. Here metagenomes were sampled from piranha ( Serrasalmus rhombeus ) and from river water from the Rio São Benedito (Amazon Basin). Shotgun metagenome sequencing was used to explore diversity and to test whether fish microbiomes are a good proxy for river microbiome studies. The results showed that the fish microbiomes were not significantly different from the river water microbiomes at higher taxonomic ranks. However, at the genus level, fish microbiome alpha diversity decreased, and beta diversity increased. This result repeated for functional gene abundances associated with specific metabolic categories (SEED level 3). A clear delineation between water and fish was seen for beta diversity. The piranha microbiome provides a good and representative subset of its river water microbiome. Variations seen in beta biodiversity were expected and can be explained by temporal variations in the fish microbiome in response to stronger selective forces on its biodiversity. Metagenome assembled genomes construction was better from the fish samples. This study has revealed that the microbiome of a piranha tells us a lot about its river water microbiome and function.