Host development overwhelms environmental dispersal in governing the ecological succession of zebrafish gut microbiota

• Main Authors: Fanshu Xiao, Wengen Zhu, Yuhe Yu, Zhili He, Bo Wu, Cheng Wang, Longfei Shu, Xinghao Li, Huaqun Yin, Jianjun Wang, Philippe Juneau, Xiafei Zheng, Yongjie Wu, Juan Li, Xiaojuan Chen, Dongwei Hou, Zhijian Huang, Jianguo He, Guohuan Xu, Liwei Xie, Jie Huang, Qingyun Yan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2021-01-01
• Series: npj Biofilms and Microbiomes
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41522-020-00176-2

Abstract Clarifying mechanisms underlying the ecological succession of gut microbiota is a central theme of gut ecology. Under experimental manipulations of zebrafish hatching and rearing environments, we test our core hypothesis that the host development will overwhelm environmental dispersal in governing fish gut microbial community succession due to host genetics, immunology, and gut nutrient niches. We find that zebrafish developmental stage substantially explains the gut microbial community succession, whereas the environmental effects do not significantly affect the gut microbiota succession from larvae to adult fish. The gut microbiotas of zebrafish are clearly separated according to fish developmental stages, and the degree of homogeneous selection governing gut microbiota succession is increasing with host development. This study advances our mechanistic understanding of the gut microbiota assembly and succession by integrating the host and environmental effects, which also provides new insights into the gut ecology of other aquatic animals.