This study aimed to evaluate the structural changes in the microbiota of Penaeus monodon during its ontogenetic development and evaluate functional shifts in metabolic pathways. To address these questions, shrimp were maintained under isolated conditions to avoid cross-contamination with other environmental bacteria and reared in twelve 50 L plastic tanks connected to a recirculation system. The replicates of pooled intestine specimens from 15 shrimp were analyzed at postlarvae, juvenile, and adult phases for nucleic acid extraction. We tested the V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene from the postlarvae, juvenile, and adult stages. Resulting amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were used to evaluate both structural and functional shifts during tiger shrimp development. Although the richness and diversity of microbiota were only slightly affected, the phylum Proteobacteria (genus Vibrio) was significantly predominant in the earliest stages of life, while Actinobacteria (genus Actinotalea) significantly increased in adult shrimp. Moreover, functional predictions by PICRUSt suggested that microbiota is primarily involved in metabolic activities during each developmental stage. Overall, these results suggest that each ontogenetic stage may provide specific conditions for the proliferation of certain bacterial taxa. Nerveless, alternative microbiota maintains similar ecological activities; thus, we posit that “stage-specific” changes in microbiota may be regulated to guarantee pivotal host functions.

这项研究旨在评估斑节对虾微生物群的结构变化在其个体发育过程中，评估代谢途径的功能转变。为了解决这些问题，将虾保持在隔离的条件下，以避免与其他环境细菌交叉污染，并在与再循环系统连接的十二个50 L塑料罐中进行养育。在幼虫后，幼年和成年期分析了来自15只虾的合并肠标本的复制品，以进行核酸提取。我们从幼虫期，少年期和成年期测试了16S rRNA基因的V3区域。所得的扩增子序列变体（ASV）用于评估虎虾发育过程中的结构和功能变化。尽管微生物群的丰富性和多样性只受到了轻微的影响，但Proteobacteria（弧菌属））在生命的最初阶段显着占优势，而成年对虾的放线菌（Actinotalea属）则显着增加。此外，PICRUSt的功能预测表明，在每个发育阶段，微生物群主要参与代谢活动。总体而言，这些结果表明，每个个体发育阶段都可能为某些细菌类群的增殖提供特定条件。无神经的替代微生物群保持着类似的生态活动；因此，我们认为微生物群的“阶段特定”变化可以被调节以保证关键的宿主功能。