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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Fort Pierce, Florida » U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory » Subtropical Plant Pathology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #384524
Research Project: Establishing Seedstocks for the U.S. Marine Finfish Industry

Location: Subtropical Plant Pathology Research

Title: Changes in Prokaryotic Communities in Farmed Florida Pompano Larvae and Water due to Changes in Rearing Salinities

Author
item BRADSHAW II, DAVID - Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
item PERRICONE, CARILE - Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
item MCHENRY, BRANDON - Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
item URIBE, VICTORIA - Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
item RUPNIK, BRENT - Live Advantage Bait, Llc
item KIRCHHOFF, NICOLE - Live Advantage Bait, Llc
item RICHE, MARTIN - Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
item MEJRI, SAHAR - Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
item WILLS, PAUL - Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

Submitted to: World Microbe Forum
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/14/2021
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: N/A

Technical Abstract: A major issue faced by in-land aquaculture farms when rearing marine finfish is maintenance of the high salinities to which wild fish populations are naturally accustomed. This is due to the economic burden of artificial seawater production. The current study was designed to assess the effects of two lower salinities (10 ppt, and 20 ppt) on the prokaryotic assemblages of whole-body Florida Pompano (Trachinotus carolinus) larvae, normally grown around 30 ppt, as well as tank water. Fish larvae were reared from hatching through 24 days post hatch in nine separate tanks with salinities in triplicate. Fish larvae were removed from respective tanks every three days with sterile instruments, placed in tubes containing RNAlater, and kept frozen at -20oC until DNA extractions. DNA extraction was performed from either a larval sample pool or a single larval sample per tank depending on weight, and in triplicate per treatment. 500 mL of water was filtered in triplicate from each tank every six days using Smith-Root eDNA filter packs. Water parameters (dissolved oxygen, temperature, and salinity) were measured twice a day, while pH was measured on days when water samples were taken. Purified DNA extracts from water (126 samples; Qiagen DNeasy PowerWater kits) and fish larvae (69 samples; Qiagen DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kits) were sent to GeneWiz (South Plainfield, NJ, USA) for sequencing of the 16S V3-V4 region. DNA sequences were trimmed for quality (Trim-Galore v0.6.6) and analyzed using QIIME2 (v2021.2). Trimmed sequences were analyzed for alpha diversity in R, DESeq2 variance stabilizing transformed, and then analyzed for beta diversity in PRIMER7/PERMANOVA+. Permutational analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) with Monte Carlo (MC) tests revealed that the whole-body microbiomes of Florida Pompano larvae across all days post hatch (DPH) were similar between 30 ppt and 20 ppt tanks, but samples in those salinities were significantly different (P(MC) < 0.05) than those in 10 ppt. The tank water samples were significantly different from each other based upon overall and pairwise PERMANANOVA analysis. Further analysis is of this data will help us determine whether there is potential for a negative change in the microbial population -- i.e., a rise in pathogens such as those found in the Vibrio genera. If this microbiome information helps demonstrate that Florida Pompano can be grown at a lower salinity without an increase in stress, in-land marine finfish farmers can ultimately save on costs associated with producing and maintaining copious amounts of high salinity water.