Investigation into the fungal diversity within different regions of the gastrointestinal tract of Panaque nigrolineatus, a wood-eating fish
Loading...
Links to Files
Author/Creator
Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2017-09-04
Type of Work
Department
Program
Citation of Original Publication
Caroline L. Marden, Ryan McDonald, et.al , Investigation into the fungal diversity within different regions of the gastrointestinal tract of Panaque nigrolineatus, a wood-eating fish, AIMS Microbiol. 2017 ; 3(4): 749–761, DOI:10.3934/microbiol.2017.4.749
Rights
This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
Abstract
The Amazonian catfish, Panaque nigrolineatus have several physiological adaptions enabling the scraping and consumption of wood (xylivory), facilitating a detritivorous dietary strategy. Composed of lignocellulose, wood is a difficult substrate to degrade and as yet, it is unclear whether the fish obtains any direct nutritional benefits from wood ingestion and degradation. However, there are numerous systems that rely on microbial symbioses to provide energy and other nutritional benefits for host organisms via lignocellulose decomposition. While previous studies on the microbial community of P. nigrolineatus have focused upon the bacterial population, the role of fungi in lignocellulose degradation in the fish has not yet been examined. This study describes the detection of fungi within the fish gastrointestinal tract. Using next generation sequencing, the effects of diet on enteric fungal populations were examined in each gastrointestinal tract region. Fungal species were found to vary in different regions of the gastrointestinal tract as a function of diet. This study is the first to examine the fungal community in a xylivorous fish and results support the hypothesis that diet influences fungal distribution and diversity within the gastrointestinal tract of P. nigrolineatus.