B48_Cod and Haddock Gut Bacteria_Final Report

Summary

The bacterial diversity contained within samples collected from the stomach of both haddock and cod was examined. In both cases, examples of microbes identified in the digestive tract of other vertebrates were observed. However, the majority of sequences identified were most similar to sequences which had previously been found in ‘environmental’ samples (e.g. soil samples). This is suggests that the bacterial community within the stomach of these fish is directly influenced by microbes being swallowed. This is different from the observations which have been reported for mammalian gut environments, where the food ingested (as opposed to the bacteria themselves) influence the bacterial population. This point is re-iterated by the relative abundance of sequences which were found which had high similarity to chloroplasts, which previously have constituted a minor level of contamination in other gut systems studied, suggestive of there not being a particularly strongly established bacterial population within the stomach of these fish.

Publication Reference No.

B48

Publication date

01 April 2008