Gut Microbiota Associated With Different Sea Lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) Life Stages

Abstract

Sea lamprey (SL; Petromyzon marinus), one of the oldest living vertebrates, have a complex metamorphic life cycle. Following hatching, SL transition into a microphagous, sediment burrowing larval stage, and after 2–10+ years, the larvae undergo a dramatic metamorphosis, transforming into parasitic juveniles that feed on blood and bodily fluids of fishes; adult lamprey cease feeding, spawn, and die. Since gut microbiota are critical for the overall health of all animals, we examined the microbiota associated with SLs in each life history stage. We show that there were significant differences in the gut bacterial communities associated with the larval, parasitic juvenile, and adult life stages. The transition from larval to the parasitic juvenile stage was marked with a significant shift in bacterial community structure and reduction in alpha diversity. The most abundant SL-associated phyla were Proteobacteria, Fusobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Verrucomicrobia, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes, with their relative abundances varying among the stages. Moreover, while larval SL were enriched with unclassified Fusobacteriaceae, unclassified Verrucomicrobiales and Cetobacterium, members of the genera with fastidious nutritional requirements, such as Streptococcus, Haemophilus, Cutibacterium, Veillonella, and Massilia, were three to four orders of magnitude greater in juveniles than in larvae. In contrast, adult SLs were enriched with Aeromonas, Iodobacter, Shewanella, and Flavobacterium. Collectively, our findings show that bacterial communities in the SL gut are dramatically different among its life stages. Understanding how these communities change over time within and among SL life stages may shed more light on the role that these gut microbes play in host growth and fitness.

Emergence of Slc11 clade MCbgut: a parsimonious hypothesis for the dawn of Lactobacillales in the gut of early vertebrates

“…Hence a LB-driven feed-forward loop may have contributed to diversify early vertebrate body plan, and turning to jawless vertebrates may be instructive in this regard. The sea lamprey has a life cycle comprising 3 distinct stages: blind larvae burrowing into the sand feeding on microbes and detritus by filtering surrounding water; a first metamorphosis rearranges sensory organs, forms a new esophagus and modifies the digestive system of free living juvenile lampreys that display high diet conversion efficiency and temperature-dependent growth; a second metamorphosis atrophies the intestine of fasting adults that die after spawning [89], [90], [91]. Apparently, the microbiota associated with growing wild juveniles is selectively enriched in LB, Streptococcus spp., in particular.…”

Evolutionary analysis of SLC10 family members and insights into function and expression regulation of lamprey NTCP

“…They are the living descendants of the world's most ancient jawless vertebrate, which lived 358 million years ago [16] . The life cycle of lamprey is complex and includes larval, metamorphic, juvenile and non-trophic adult stages [17] . During metamorphosis, the intra-and extrahepatic bile ducts degenerate and are ultimately lost [18][19][20] .…”

The metabolic adaptation of bile acids and cholesterol after biliary atresia in lamprey via transcriptome-based analysis

“…They are the living descendants of the world's most ancient jawless vertebrate, which lived 358 million years ago [ 1 ]. The life cycle of lamprey is complex, ranging from larva, metamorphosis, juvenile, and adult stages [ 2 ]. During metamorphosis, the intra- and extrahepatic bile ducts undergo degeneration and are ultimately lost, and the gallbladder disappeared [ [3] , [4] , [5] ].…”