Enrichable consortia of microbial symbionts degrade macroalgal polysaccharides in fish.

Coastal herbivorous fishes consume macroalgae, which is then degraded by microbes along their digestive tract. However, there is scarce genomic information about the microbiota that perform this degradation. This study explores the potential of gastrointestinal microbial symbionts to collaboratively degrade and ferment polysaccharides from red, green, and brown macroalgae through study of carbohydrate-active enzyme and sulfatase sequences.

Enrichable consortia of microbial symbionts degrade macroalgal polysaccharides in fish.

Coastal herbivorous fishes consume macroalgae, which is then degraded by microbes along their digestive tract. However, there is scarce foundational genomic work on the microbiota that perform this degradation. This study explores the potential of gastrointestinal microbial symbionts to collaboratively degrade and ferment polysaccharides from red, green, and brown macroalgae through study of carbohydrate-active enzyme and sulfatase sequences.

Metagenomic data reveals type I polyketide synthase distributions across biomes.

Microbial polyketide synthase (PKS) genes encode the biosynthesis of many biomedically or otherwise commercially important natural products. Despite extensive discovery efforts, metagenomic analyses suggest that only a small fraction of nature's polyketide biosynthetic potential has been realized. Much of this potential originates from type I PKSs (T1PKSs), which can be further delineated based on their domain organization and the structural features of the compounds they encode.

Herbivorous Fish Microbiome Adaptations to Sulfated Dietary Polysaccharides.

Marine herbivorous fish that feed primarily on macroalgae, such as those from the genus are essential for maintaining coral health and abundance on tropical reefs. Here, deep metagenomic sequencing and assembly of gut compartment-specific samples from three sympatric, macroalgivorous Hawaiian kyphosid species have been used to connect host gut microbial taxa with predicted protein functional capacities likely to contribute to efficient macroalgal digestion. Bacterial community compositions, algal dietary sources, and predicted enzyme functionalities were analyzed in parallel for 16 metagenomes spanning the mid- and hindgut digestive regions of wild-caught fishes.

Terpene biosynthesis in marine sponge animals.

Sea sponges are the largest marine source of small-molecule natural products described to date. Sponge-derived molecules, such as the chemotherapeutic eribulin, the calcium-channel blocker manoalide, and antimalarial compound kalihinol A, are renowned for their impressive medicinal, chemical, and biological properties. Sponges contain microbiomes that control the production of many natural products isolated from these marine invertebrates.