ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
This article is part of the Research TopicUnravelling the Wildlife Gut Microbiome: The Crucial Role of Gut Microbiomes in Wildlife Conservation StrategiesView all 19 articles
Pre-release environmental acclimation enhances wild adaptability of endangered Kaluga sturgeon (Huso dauricus): Insights from digestive, immune and gut-microbiome perspectives
Provisionally accepted
- 1Heilongjiang River Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Heilongjiang, China
- 2Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, China
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Pre-release environmental acclimation is an effective strategy for improving post-stocking survival and restoring wild genetic resources in hatchery-reared juveniles. However, environmental acclimation protocols for the endangered Kaluga sturgeon (Huso dauricus) are currently non-existent. Here, cultured H. dauricus were transferred to a tributary of the Songhua River in autumn and exposed to an in-situ environmental acclimation protocol for 30 days. Subsequently, a hatchery control (HK) and seven environmental acclimation groups—HC1 (day 2), HC2 (day 5), HC3 (day 10), HC4 (day 15), HC5 (day 20), HC6 (day 25) and HC7 (day 30)—were monitored for feeding rate, digestive and immune enzyme activities, immune-gene expression, and gut microbiota change. During the initial phase of wild conditioning, feeding rate remained negligible until HC2 group, then increased to 66 %, 88.89 % and 100 % in groups HC4, HC5 and HC6 , respectively. Meanwhile, digestive enzyme activities stabilized between groups HC4 and HC5, and immune enzyme activities in the wild-conditioned sturgeon were markedly higher than those of the control group. In addition, compared with the control group, the pro-inflammatory cytokine Interleukin-6 (IL-6) was significantly up-regulated, whereas the anti-inflammatory genes Interleukin-10 (IL-10) and Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) were significantly down-regulated in HC4 group (P < 0.05). At the phylum level, the dominant microbiota shifted from Pseudomonadota to Bacillota by day 20 (HC5 group) and thereafter remained stable. This study provides a theoretical framework for characterizing the physiological and biochemical responses of H. dauricus during environmental acclimation and provides a scientific basis for conserving its wild genetic resources.
Keywords: Huso dauricus, Environmental acclimation, Digestion, Gut Microbiota, Immunity
Received: 08 Oct 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhai, Sun, Li, Han, Zhang and Ma. 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 Zhang, zhangying@hrfri.ac.cn
Bo Ma, hsymabo@163.com
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