Sablefish GI microbiome & histology - Incorporating Gastrointestinal Microbiome Analysis into Fish Nutritional Assessments

Sustainable culture of sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) is an active research area at NWFSC, with a primary objective of rearing a human food source under healthy, economic, and sustainable conditions. Development of sustainable feed for juvenile fish through replacement of marine fish oils is key for economic and ecological viability of sablefish culture.

This project intends to analyze the GI microbiome of juvenile sablefish, comparing three feeds (corn oil, linseed oil, BioOregon BioBrood) used in a National Marine Aquaculture Initiative (NMAI)-funded project examining the effects of substitute lipids on growth, production composition, and lipid bioconversion. Community DNA from GI mucus and luminal contents will be extracted, quantified, and quality checked. DNA will be submitted for analysis by a microbial phylogenetic microarray bearing over a million probes for classifying more than 59,000 bacterial taxa. Second Genome, a company with exclusive licensing for this phylogenetic microarray, will conduct the the analysis for classification, relative abundance, & ordination. Complementary to microbiome analysis, morphological changes in gastrointestinal tissues will be assessed for each fish by light microscopic histology (collaboration with Mark Myers). Although this is a stand-alone project, the objective is for the microbiome approach to become an integral component of finfish nutrition research.
Raw & refined classification & abundance data from array analysis & histology analysis.