Mangrove crab intestine and habitat sediment microbiomes cooperatively work on carbon and nitrogen cycling

PLoS One. 2021 Dec 31;16(12):e0261654. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261654. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Mangrove ecosystems, where litter and organic components are degraded and converted into detrital materials, support rich coastal fisheries resources. Sesarmid (Grapsidae) crabs, which feed on mangrove litter, play a crucial role in material flow in carbon-rich and nitrogen-limited mangrove ecosystems; however, the process of assimilation and conversion into detritus has not been well studied. In this study, we performed microbiome analyses of intestinal bacteria from three species of mangrove crab and five sediment positions in the mud lobster mounds, including the crab burrow wall, to study the interactive roles of crabs and sediment in metabolism. Metagenome analysis revealed species-dependent intestinal profiles, especially in Neosarmatium smithi, while the sediment microbiome was similar in all positions, albeit with some regional dependency. The microbiome profiles of crab intestines and sediments were significantly different in the MDS analysis based on OTU similarity; however, 579 OTUs (about 70% of reads in the crab intestinal microbiome) were identical between the intestinal and sediment bacteria. In the phenotype prediction, cellulose degradation was observed in the crab intestine. Cellulase activity was detected in both crab intestine and sediment. This could be mainly ascribed to Demequinaceae, which was predominantly found in the crab intestines and burrow walls. Nitrogen fixation was also enriched in both the crab intestines and sediments, and was supported by the nitrogenase assay. Similar to earlier reports, sulfur-related families were highly enriched in the sediment, presumably degrading organic compounds as terminal electron acceptors under anaerobic conditions. These results suggest that mangrove crabs and habitat sediment both contribute to carbon and nitrogen cycling in the mangrove ecosystem via these two key reactions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acetylene / chemistry
  • Animals
  • Brachyura / metabolism*
  • Carbon / metabolism
  • Carbon Cycle*
  • Cellulase / metabolism
  • Cellulose / chemistry
  • Ecosystem*
  • Forests
  • Gastrointestinal Microbiome*
  • Geologic Sediments*
  • Intestines / metabolism*
  • Metagenome
  • Microbiota
  • Nitrogen / metabolism
  • Nitrogen Cycle*
  • Nitrogenase / metabolism
  • Phenotype
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / metabolism
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA
  • Species Specificity
  • Thailand

Substances

  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
  • Carbon
  • Cellulose
  • Nitrogenase
  • Cellulase
  • Nitrogen
  • Acetylene

Grants and funding

This work was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Number 26520308) and the Research Institute of Marine Invertebrate. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.