Pathogen infection poses a serious threat to the survival and commercial quality of cultured Paa spinosa, which provide protection as a substitute for wild P. spinosa. The gut microbiota plays vital roles in host health and immunity. To provide guidance for preventing intestinal diseases of artificial P. spinosa culture, we compared gut microbiota compositions of wild and cultured P. spinosa using high‐throughput sequencing. A total of 11,526 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified from 14,043 sequences from each sample. Cetobacterium, PW3 Bacteroides and some unidentified species from Bacteroidales, Rikenellaceae and Clostridiales were significantly increased in the gut microbiota from cultured P. spinosa, whereas Faecalibacterium and unidentified bacteria from Ruminococcaceae were significantly decreased in the gut microbiota from cultured P. spinosa. According to the gut microbiota composition, we hypothesized that the cultured P. spinosa in Jing'an would exhibit a higher risk of pathogenic infection than those in Cili. These results provided a method to forecast the pathogenic infection risk of cultured P. spinosa, which could guide the artificial culture of and prevent diseases in P. spinosa through gut microbiota.

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The composition and abundance of gut microbiota is essential for host health 22 and immunity. Gut microbiota is symbiotic with the host, so changes in the host diet, 23 development, and health will lead to changes in the gut microbiota. Conversely, changes 24 in the gut microbiota also affect the host conditions. In this experiment, 16S rRNA high-25 throughput sequencing was used to compare the gut microbiota composition of 5 26 healthy Paa Spinosa and 6 P. spinosa with rotten-skin disease. Results: the gut 27 microbiota composition was significant difference between diseased P. spinosa and the 28 healthy P. spinosa; LEfSe analysis showed that the relative abundance of 29 Methanocorpusculum, Parabacteroides, AF12, PW3, Epulopiscium, and Oscillospira 30 were significantly higher in the diseased P. spinosa, while the relative abundance of 31 Serratia, Eubacteium, Citrobacter, and Morganella were significantly lower. 32 Conclusion: Rotten-skin disease changed P. spinosa gut microbiota significantly; The 33 relative abundance of Epulopiscium and Oscillospira might be related to the health 34 conditions of the host skin and gallbladder; The relative abundance of Serratia and 35 Eubacteium might be important for maintaining the gut microbiota ecosystem. 36 37 38 39 40 41