Composition and function of the skin microbiota were altered of red leg syndrome in cultured bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana)

Abstract

Skin microbiota play an important role in skin barrier function and are associated with host health. The study of the skin microbiota is beneficial for managing disease with skin microbiota. Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) is an important cultured animal. Bacterial diseases like red leg syndrome (RLS) often occur in bullfrog cultured and cause huge economic losses around the world. However, the appearance of RLS is unknown. Here we compare the skin microbiota of RLS bullfrog and healthy bullfrog by 16 S rRNA microbiome profiles. The bacterial community diversity of bullfrog skin was significantly different between RLS and healthy group. Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota, Firmicutes were the most abundant phyla in bullfrog skin. Compared with healthy bullfrogs, RLS bullfrogs had high abundance of Acinetobacter, Chryseobacterium, Elizabethkingia, Flavobacterium and Streptococcus in skin microbiota, but the relative abundance of Cetobacterium, Bacteroides and Shewanella was overrepresented in the RLS bullfrog. The Tax4Fun function prediction showed that the relative abundance of genes associated with Nucleotide metabolism, Translation, Nucleotide metabolism, Translation, Glycan biosynthesis and metabolism exhibited was significantly higher in RLS bullfrogs. The results suggested that the RLS significantly changed the composition and predictive function of the skin bacterial community in cultured bullfrogs. This study is the first to report on the relationship between skin microbiota and red leg syndrome of bullfrog, which can expand our understanding of bacterial communities in bullfrog farming from the perspective of microbial ecology and help prevent and manage RLS in bullfrog farming.

Keywords

• Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana)
• Red leg syndrome (RLS)
• Bacterial community
• Bacterial function