The apple snail, Pomacea canaliculata, is one of the world’s 100 worst invasive alien species and vector of some pathogens relevant to human health. On account of the importance of gut microbiota to the host animals, we compared the communities of the intestinal microbiota from P. canaliculata collected at different developmental stages (juvenile and adult) and different sexes by using high-throughput sequencing. The core bacteria phyla of P. canaliculata gut microbiota included Tenericutes (at an average relative abundance of 45.7 %), Firmicutes (27.85 %), Proteobacteria (11.86 %), Actinobacteria (4.45 %), and Cyanobacteria (3.61 %). The female group possessed the highest richness values, whereas the male group possessed the lowest bacterial richness and diversity compared with the female and juvenile group. Both the developmental stages and sexes had important effects on the composition of the intestinal microbiota of P. canaliculata. By LEfSe analysis, microbes from the phyla Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were enriched in the female group, phylum Bacteroidetes was enriched in the male group, family Mycoplasmataceae and genus Leuconostoc were enriched in the juvenile group. PICRUSt analysis predicted twenty-four metabolic functions in all samples, including general function prediction, amino acid transport and metabolism, transcription, replication, recombination and repair, carbohydrate transport and metabolism, etc. This study provided a general understanding of the diversity characteristics of intestinal microbial communities of P. canaliculata, and indicated that developmental stage and gender could both influence the intestinal microbes of P. canaliculata. Further study may focus on the interaction between the gut microbiota and their host.

中文翻译：

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Pomacea canaliculata 不同性别和不同发育阶段肠道微生物群的组成和多样性

苹果蜗牛 Pomacea canaliculata 是世界上 100 种最严重的外来入侵物种之一，也是一些与人类健康相关的病原体的载体。鉴于肠道微生物群对宿主动物的重要性，我们通过使用高通量测序比较了在不同发育阶段（幼年和成年）和不同性别收集的 P. canaliculata 肠道微生物群落。P. canaliculata 肠道微生物群的核心细菌门包括 Tenericutes（平均相对丰度为 45.7%）、Firmicutes（27.85%）、Proteobacteria（11.86%）、Actinobacteria（4.45%）和 Cyanobacteria（3.61%）。与雌性和幼年组相比，雌性组的丰富度值最高，而雄性组的细菌丰富度和多样性最低。发育阶段和性别对 P. canaliculata 肠道微生物群的组成都有重要影响。通过LEfSe分析，雌性组富集Proteobacteria和Actinobacteria门，雄性组富集拟杆菌门，幼年组富集支原体科和明串珠菌属。PICRUSt分析预测了所有样本的24种代谢功能，包括一般功能预测、氨基酸转运与代谢、转录、复制、重组与修复、碳水化合物转运与代谢等。 P. canaliculata 的微生物群落，并表明发育阶段和性别都会影响 P. canaliculata 的肠道微生物。进一步的研究可能侧重于肠道微生物群与其宿主之间的相互作用。