The Identification and Characterization of Zebrafish Housed at Goucher College

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2016-12-13

Department

Biology

Program

Center for Natural Sciences

Citation of Original Publication

Rights

Collection may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.

Subjects

Abstract

To gain a better understanding of the Denio rario, zebrafish, gut microbiota composition and function and how it contributes to the health of the zebrafish, three zebrafish guts were cultured. The average density of the zebrafish gut microbiota was 2.55 CFU/mL ± 1.03 CFU/mL with a Simpson’s diversity between 1.12 – 1.39. Seven species were identified at the genera level though Sanger sequencing of the 16S rRNA sequencing and comparison to the NCBI database. Species isolated included an Enterococcus species, Micrococcus species, Shewanella species, two Aeromonas species, and two Vibrio species. All gram-stains matched the literature, excluding the Aeromonas species 1, which had inconclusive results. Biochemical tests indicated that the isolated strains were capable of glucose fermentation, gas production, acetoin production, phenylalanine deamination, urea hydrolysis, citrate utilization. Micrococcus species, Aeromonas species 1, and both Vibrios species were capable of producing antibiotics, and each species demonstrated antibiotic resistance. Additionally, isolated species were tested for growth at 37°C to determine if they could survive the highest temperatures of the zebrafish’s range, and every isolate except Aeromonas species 2 experienced a drastic reduction in growth. Understanding the composition and functions of the gut microbiota, as well as the temperature range of the microbes, will help us better understand the health of the zebrafish and predict how the microbiota may change as the temperature of their habitat increases.