FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 95, 2019, fz070 doi: 10.1093/femsec/fz070 Advance Access Publication Date: 20 May 2019 Research Article RESEARCH ARTICLE Bacterial communities associated with tail fan necrosis in spiny lobster, Jasus edwardsii Hua Zha 1,2,3, *, Gillian Lewis 2 , David W. Waite 2 , Jieyun Wu 2 , Kevin Chang 4 , Yimin Dong 2 and Andrew Jeffs 1,2 1 Institute of Marine Science, The University of Auckland, New Zealand, 2 School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland, New Zealand, 3 State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Disease, the First Affliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, China and 4 Department of Statistics, The University of Auckland, New Zealand ∗ Corresponding author: Institute of Marine Science and School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, 3A Symonds Street, Auckland 1010, New Zealand. Tel: +64 2102512089; E-mail: daibaobao288@163.com One sentence summary: Bacterial fora characterizes TFN in spiny lobster with TFN, and multiple opportunistic bacteria are associated with TFN. Editor: Julie Olson ABSTRACT Spiny lobsters are among the most valuable seafood products, but their commercial value is greatly diminished by tail fan necrosis (TFN), an unsightly blackening and erosion of the posterior margins on the abdomen. The condition results from bacterial incursion following physical damage to the cuticle. In this current study, the bacterial communities on the cuticle of tail fans of wild spiny lobsters with and without TFN were examined using 16S rDNA Illumina sequencing to identify whether there is a group of bacteria associated with TFN. The bacterial communities in the affected cuticle had signifcantly less richness, diversity and evenness, but greater variability between samples than those in unaffected cuticle. There were 21 phylotypes closely associated with TFN, of which, those belonging to Aquimarina, Flavobacterium, Neptunomonas, Streptomyces, Flavobacteriaceae and Thiohalorhabdales were most important. The affected cuticle samples were clustered into two microbial colonization states, each characterized by distinct phylotypes that are closely associated with TFN, suggesting different phylotypes were associated with different microbial colonization states of TFN. These bacteria appear to develop their association through opportunistic pathways created by the provision of changes in the bacterial habitat associated with injury to the cuticle or compromised immunity subsequent to the injury. Keywords: bacterial communities; bacteria; Illumina sequencing; shell disease; marine lobsters INTRODUCTION Spiny lobsters are some of the most valuable seafood species in the world. For example, in New Zealand they support an inshore fshery generating NZ $264 million in recent annual exports and NZ $1.3 billion in quota value (Breen et al. 2016). However, their survival during the stressful period of transport to distant mar- kets, and their price in those markets, is greatly diminished by tail fan necrosis (TFN). This condition involves the blackening and erosion of the tail fans, and in extreme cases, parts of the abdomen (Porter et al. 2001; Musgrove et al. 2005; Mancuso et al. 2010; Zha et al. 2017). Shell disease affects different marine lobsters, such as the American and European lobsters, Norway lobster and species of spiny lobster (Ziino et al. 2002; Musgrove et al. 2005; Chistoser- dov et al. 2012; Quinn et al. 2013; Davies et al. 2014). In the Ameri- can lobster, different forms of shell disease have been reported, i.e. epizootic shell disease, enzootic shell disease, impoundment Received: 17 December 2018; Accepted: 17 May 2019 C  FEMS 2019. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com 1 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/femsec/article/95/6/fiz070/5492258 by guest on 13 November 2022