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Acute Ammonia Causes Pathogenic Dysbiosis of Shrimp Gut Biofilms
Summary
Researchers studied how sudden ammonia exposure affects the gut microbiome of white shrimp and its connection to shrimp mortality. They found that high ammonia levels disrupted the balance of gut bacteria, allowing harmful species to proliferate while protective bacteria declined, leading to severe organ damage. The study suggests that ammonia spikes in aquaculture settings can trigger a cascade of gut microbiome disruption that contributes to shrimp disease and death.
Acute ammonia exposure has detrimental effects on shrimp, but the underlying mechanisms remain to be fully explored. In the present study, we investigated the impact of acute ammonia exposure on the gut microbiota of the white shrimp <i>Litopenaeus vannamei</i> and its association with shrimp mortality. Exposure to a lethal concentration of ammonia for 48 h resulted in increased mortality in <i>L. vannamei</i>, with severe damage to the hepatopancreas. Ammonia exposure led to a significant decrease in gut microbial diversity, along with the loss of beneficial bacterial taxa and the proliferation of pathogenic <i>Vibrio</i> strains. A phenotypic analysis revealed a transition from the dominance of aerobic to facultative anaerobic strains due to ammonia exposure. A functional analysis revealed that ammonia exposure led to an enrichment of genes related to biofilm formation, host colonization, and virulence pathogenicity. A species-level analysis and experiments suggest the key role of a <i>Vibrio harveyi</i> strain in causing shrimp disease and specificity under distinct environments. These findings provide new information on the mechanism of shrimp disease under environmental changes.
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