| Title | Jellyfish summer outbreaks as bacterial vectors and potential hazards for marine animals and humans health? The case of Rhizostoma pulmo (Scyphozoa, Cnidaria) |
| Abstract | Jellyfish represent an important component of marine food webs characterized by large fluctuations of population density, with the ability to abruptly form outbreaks, followed by rarity periods. In spite of considerable efforts to investigate how jellyfish populations are responding globally to anthropogenic change, available evidence still remains unclear. In the last 50 years, jellyfish arc seemingly on the rise in a number of coastal areas, including the Mediterranean Sea, where jellyfish blooms periodically become an issue to marine and maritime human activities. Their impacts on marine organism welfare have been poorly quantified. The jellyfish, Rhizostoma pulmo, is an outbreak-forming scyphomedusa whose large populations spread across the Mediterranean, with increasing periodicity and variable abundance. Studies on cnidarian jellyfish suggested being important vectors of bacterial pathogens. In the present study, by combination of conventional culture-based methods and a high-throughput amplicon sequencing (HTS) approach, we characterized the diversity of the bacterial community associated with this jellyfish during their summer outbreak. Three distinct jellyfish compartments, namely umbrella, oral arms, and the mucus secretion obtained from whole specimens were screened for specifically associated microbiota. A total of 17 phyla, 30 classes, 73 orders, 146 families and 329 genera of microbial organisms were represented in R. pulmo samples with three major lades (ie. Spiroplasma, Mycoplasma and Wolinella) representing over 90% of the retrieved total sequences. The taxonomic microbial inventory was then combined with metabolic profiling data obtained from the Biolog Eco-Plate system. Significant differences among the jellyfish compartments were detected in terms of bacterial abundance, diversity and metabolic utilization of 31 different carbon sources with the highest value of abundance and metabolic potential in the mucus secretion compared to the umbrella and oral arms. Results are discussed in the framework of the species ecology as well as the potential health hazard for marine organisms and humans. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
| Source | Science of the total environment 692, pp. 305–318 |
| Keywords | ScyphomedusaeMetagenomic analysisHigh-throughput sequencingTaxonomic microbial diversityBIOLOGMetabolic profiling |
| Journal | Science of the total environment |
| Editor | Elsevier, Lausanne ;, Paesi Bassi |
| Year | 2019 |
| Type | Articolo in rivista |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.07.155 |
| Authors | Basso, Lorena; Rizzo, Lucia; Marzano, Marinella; Intranuovo, Marianna; Fosso, Bruno; Pesole, Graziano; Piraino, Stefano; Stabili, Loredana |
| Text | 413045 2019 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.07.155 ISI Web of Science WOS 000484994700031 Scyphomedusae Metagenomic analysis High throughput sequencing Taxonomic microbial diversity BIOLOG Metabolic profiling Jellyfish summer outbreaks as bacterial vectors and potential hazards for marine animals and humans health The case of Rhizostoma pulmo Scyphozoa, Cnidaria Basso, Lorena; Rizzo, Lucia; Marzano, Marinella; Intranuovo, Marianna; Fosso, Bruno; Pesole, Graziano; Piraino, Stefano; Stabili, Loredana Univ Salento; CoNISMa; Stn Zool Anton Dohrn; CNR; Univ Bari Aldo Moro; CNR Jellyfish represent an important component of marine food webs characterized by large fluctuations of population density, with the ability to abruptly form outbreaks, followed by rarity periods. In spite of considerable efforts to investigate how jellyfish populations are responding globally to anthropogenic change, available evidence still remains unclear. In the last 50 years, jellyfish arc seemingly on the rise in a number of coastal areas, including the Mediterranean Sea, where jellyfish blooms periodically become an issue to marine and maritime human activities. Their impacts on marine organism welfare have been poorly quantified. The jellyfish, Rhizostoma pulmo, is an outbreak forming scyphomedusa whose large populations spread across the Mediterranean, with increasing periodicity and variable abundance. Studies on cnidarian jellyfish suggested being important vectors of bacterial pathogens. In the present study, by combination of conventional culture based methods and a high throughput amplicon sequencing HTS approach, we characterized the diversity of the bacterial community associated with this jellyfish during their summer outbreak. Three distinct jellyfish compartments, namely umbrella, oral arms, and the mucus secretion obtained from whole specimens were screened for specifically associated microbiota. A total of 17 phyla, 30 classes, 73 orders, 146 families and 329 genera of microbial organisms were represented in R. pulmo samples with three major lades ie. Spiroplasma, Mycoplasma and Wolinella representing over 90% of the retrieved total sequences. The taxonomic microbial inventory was then combined with metabolic profiling data obtained from the Biolog Eco Plate system. Significant differences among the jellyfish compartments were detected in terms of bacterial abundance, diversity and metabolic utilization of 31 different carbon sources with the highest value of abundance and metabolic potential in the mucus secretion compared to the umbrella and oral arms. Results are discussed in the framework of the species ecology as well as the potential health hazard for marine organisms and humans. C 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 692 Published version Jellyfish summer outbreaks as bacterial vectors and potential hazards for marine animals and humans health prodotto n. 1 Science of the total Environment 2019.pdf Articolo in rivista Elsevier 0048 9697 Science of the total environment Science of the total environment Sci. total environ. graziano.pesole PESOLE GRAZIANO loredana.stabili STABILI LOREDANA marinella.marzano MARZANO MARINELLA bruno.fosso FOSSO BRUNO lucia.rizzo RIZZO LUCIA DTA.AD005.084.002 Utilizzazione di biomasse e sostanze attive da organismi marini |
