The rapa whelk Rapana venosa is a commercially important gastropod in China, but a major invader worldwide. There is little information on the bacterial community composition in the digestive system of this species, despite the microflora has important roles in digestion, nutrition, disease resistance, and immune response. The present study investigated the bacterial flora community in the esophagus and intestinal tract of wild R. venosa by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The esophagus and intestine had 1175 and 526 unique operational taxonomic units, respectively, with 616 common to both tissues. The 10 most highly represented microbial genera in the esophagus were Mycoplasma, Bifidobacterium, Escherichia, Shewanella, Vibrio, Lactobacillus, Octadecabacter, Enterococcus, Streptococcus, and Sphingomonas, which accounted for 41.35% of microbes. In the intestine, the most abundant genera were Mycoplasma, Bifidobacterium, Escherichia, Shewanella, Vibrio, Psychrilyobacter, Peptoniphilus, Sporobacterium, Octadecabacter, and Mobiluncusin (representing 62.74% of total microbes). A linear discriminant analysis, coupled with effect size, revealed that 31 taxa were differentially represented in esophagus and intestine bacterial communities. These results demonstrate the diversity of microbiota in the esophagus and intestinal tract of R. venosa and provide a basis for investigations into the physiological and immunological roles of these microorganisms in whelk.
Keywords: Rapana venosa; bacterial; digestive tract; gastropod.