Isolated faecal bacterial communities found for Weddell seals, Leptonychotes weddellii, at White Island, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

Banks, Jonathan C.; Cary, S. Craig; Hogg, Ian D.

doi:10.1007/s00300-014-1567-x

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Our findings greatly expand upon observations describing the fecal microbiota of a single sea lion determined from feces collected from Seal Bay, Kangaroo Island, Australia, in which Firmicutes contributed ϳ80% to the microbial community composition (5,18,20). Similar fecal microbiota composition and Firmicutes dominance have been observed in other pinniped species, including Australian fur, leopard, southern elephant, and Weddell seals, suggesting that the Firmicutes are a core group within the pinniped microbiota.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

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Colony Location and Captivity Influence the Gut Microbial Community Composition of the Australian Sea Lion (Neophoca cinerea)

Delport

Power

Harcourt

et al. 2016

Appl Environ Microbiol

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Gut microbiota play an important role in maintenance of mammalian metabolism and immune system regulation, and disturbances to this community can have adverse impacts on animal health. To better understand the composition of gut microbiota in marine mammals, fecal bacterial communities of the Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea), an endangered pinniped with localized distribution, were examined. A comparison of samples from individuals across 11 wild colonies in South and Western Australia and three Australian captive populations showed five dominant bacterial phyla: Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, and Fusobacteria. The phylum Firmicutes was dominant in both wild (76.4% ؎ 4.73%) and captive animals (61.4% ؎ 10.8%), while Proteobacteria contributed more to captive (29.3% ؎ 11.5%) than to wild (10.6% ؎ 3.43%) fecal communities. Qualitative differences were observed between fecal communities from wild and captive animals based on principal-coordinate analysis. SIMPER (similarity percentage procedure) analyses indicated that operational taxonomic units (OTU) from the bacterial families Clostridiaceae and Ruminococcaceae were more abundant in wild than in captive animals and contributed most to the average dissimilarity between groups (SIMPER contributions of 19.1% and 10.9%, respectively). Differences in the biological environment, the foraging site fidelity, and anthropogenic impacts may provide various opportunities for unique microbial establishment in Australian sea lions. As anthropogenic disturbances to marine mammals are likely to increase, understanding the potential for such disturbances to impact microbial community compositions and subsequently affect animal health will be beneficial for management of these vulnerable species. IMPORTANCEThe Australian sea lion is an endangered species for which there is currently little information regarding disease and microbial ecology. In this work, we present an in-depth study of the fecal microbiota of a large number of Australian sea lions from geographically diverse wild and captive populations. Colony location and captivity were found to influence the gut microbial community compositions of these animals. Our findings significantly extend the baseline knowledge of marine mammal gut microbiome composition and variability. It is predicted that global change will have many major, but as yet unknown, impacts on aquatic ecosystems. Marine mammal species, including bottlenose dolphins, sea otters, manatees, and gray whales, have been proposed as sentinels for diverse threats to aquatic health, including disease transmission, changes in food webs, and contaminant levels (1-6). The key roles and contributions of microbes to mammalian host health are becoming increasingly recognized, yet remain largely unexplored for marine mammals (7). An understanding of the impacts of anthropogenic pressures on marine mammal microbial communities and of the potential cascade of impacts on marine health is necessary for full exploration of the roles a...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…However, marine mammal samples used for studies and comparisons of microbiota have almost entirely come from seals of various species (5,(17)(18)(19)(20)(21). Such studies have found that the microbiota are largely dominated by four phyla, Firmic- …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Colony Location and Captivity Influence the Gut Microbial Community Composition of the Australian Sea Lion (Neophoca cinerea)

Delport

Power

Harcourt

et al. 2016

Appl Environ Microbiol

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“…et al, 2010), indicating their presence even in polar ecosystems. Proteobacteria have also previously been identified in the fecal microbiome (12.9% relative abundance) of this species (Banks et al, 2014), suggesting that gram-negative bacteria are an important part of their gut microbial community. A healthy gut barrier prevents the translocation of live bacteria into the tissues and circulation, a process that, if defective, would expose animals to acute infectious and inflammatory challenge, and could produce sepsis (Balzan et al, 2007;Schuijt et al, 2013).…”

Section: Relevance Of Lps Stimulation and Observed Responsesmentioning

confidence: 73%

Intrinsic anti-inflammatory properties in the serum of two species of deep-diving seal

Bagchi

Batten

Levin

et al. 2018

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Weddell and elephant seals are deep-diving mammals, which rely on lung collapse to limit nitrogen absorption and prevent decompression injury. Repeated collapse and re-expansion exposes the lungs to multiple stressors, including ischemia-reperfusion, alveolar shear stress and inflammation. There is no evidence, however, that diving damages pulmonary function in these species. To investigate potential protective strategies in deep-diving seals, we examined the inflammatory response of seal whole blood exposed to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a potent endotoxin. Interleukin-6 (IL6) cytokine production elicited by LPS exposure was 50 to 500 times lower in blood of healthy northern elephant seals and Weddell seals compared with that of healthy human blood. In contrast to the ∼6× increased production of IL6 protein from LPS-exposed Weddell seal whole blood, isolated Weddell seal peripheral blood mononuclear cells, under standard cell culture conditions using medium supplemented with fetal bovine serum (FBS), produced a robust LPS response (∼300×). Induction of mRNA expression as well as production of IL6, IL8, IL10, KC-like and TNFα were reduced by substituting FBS with an equivalent amount of autologous seal serum. Weddell seal serum also attenuated the inflammatory response of RAW 267.4 mouse macrophage cells exposed to LPS. Cortisol level and the addition of serum lipids did not impact the cytokine response in cultured cells. These data suggest that seal serum possesses anti-inflammatory properties, which may protect deep divers from naturally occurring inflammatory challenges such as dive-induced hypoxia-reoxygenation and lung collapse.

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“…; Banks et al . ). Cellulose‐utilizing bacterial populations were detected in the faeces of dugong, Dugong dugon (Tsukinowa et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Comparison of the gut microbiota of captive common bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus in three aquaria

Suzuki

Segawa

Sawa³

et al. 2019

Journal of Applied Microbiology

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Isolated faecal bacterial communities found for Weddell seals, Leptonychotes weddellii, at White Island, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

Cited by 13 publications

References 52 publications

Colony Location and Captivity Influence the Gut Microbial Community Composition of the Australian Sea Lion (Neophoca cinerea)

Colony Location and Captivity Influence the Gut Microbial Community Composition of the Australian Sea Lion (Neophoca cinerea)

Intrinsic anti-inflammatory properties in the serum of two species of deep-diving seal

Comparison of the gut microbiota of captive common bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus in three aquaria

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