ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Fisheries, Aquaculture and Living Resources
This article is part of the Research TopicEcological Safety and One Health in AquacultureView all 4 articles
Exploring the infection process of Haliotis discus hannai to Vibrio harveyi based on changes in intestinal microbiota
Provisionally accepted
- 1Yancheng Teachers University, Yancheng, China
- 2Heilongjiang River Fishery Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Harbin, China
- 3Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, China
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Vibrio harveyi is capable of inducing vibriosis in Haliotis discus hannai and causes enormous economic losses of marine molluscs. The intestinal microbiota plays critical roles in immune homeostasis and provides essential health benefits or risk to host. However, there is still little information about the intestinal microbiota responses of H. discus hannai to V. harveyi infection. We investigated the variations in the mortality rate, pathological changes, and intestinal microbiota communities of abalone after exposure to V. harveyi. The present study investigated the intestinal microbial response to acute infection of H. discus hannai with V. harveyi within 12 hour post-infection (hpi), 32 hpi and 60 hpi by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results indicated that the prolongation of the duration of infection exerts a significant impact on the intestinal microbial community, and within-group variability gradually decreased. At the 32 hpi and 60 hpi, the relative abundance of Mycoplasmataceae and Ruminococcaceae significantly decreased, while Vibrionaceae and Fusobacteriaceae exhibited a significant increase in relative abundance. The results demonstrated that infection of abalone with V. harveyi promoted the proliferation of pathogenic bacteria in the intestinal microbiota and thereby facilitates the development of disease in the abalones. This study aimed to explore the role of the intestinal microbiota in the pathogenic mechanism of V. harveyi infection, provide new scientific insights into disease courses of abalones. Key words: Vibrio harveyi; Haliotis discus hannai; intestinal microbiota; infection progress; 16S rRNA gene sequencing
Keywords: Vibrio harveyi, Haliotis discus hannai, intestinal microbiota, Infection progress, 16S rRNA gene sequencing
Received: 15 Oct 2025; Accepted: 06 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Chen, Pan, Wang and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ying Zhu, zhuying@qau.edu.cn
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