Temporal variability of microbiome in the different plankton hosts revealed distinct environmental persistence of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in shrimp farms.

Plankton-bacteria interactions may play essential roles in maintaining the persistence of pathogenic Vibrio spp. However, the actual plankton host of the toxigenic Vibrio parahaemolyticus that harbors thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH) and TDH-related hemolysin (TRH) remains unclear. To answer this question, we measured the abundance of toxigenic and nontoxigenic Vibrio parahaemolyticus in different types of plankton by most probable number (MPN)-PCR. We next investigated the dynamics of the microbiomes of rearing water, copepods, Chlorella, four predominant diatom genera (Nitzschia, Melosira, Skeletonema and Chaetoceros) and the gut of the shrimp in two recirculated shrimp farming systems from April to September using high-throughput 16 S rRNA amplicon sequencing. The survival of trh-positive and trh-negative V. parahaemolyticus in seawater and different plankton hosts was examined under low temperature and starvation conditions. The results showed that copepods harbored the highest proportion of trh-positive V. parahaemolyticus, followed by diatoms. Chitinous diatoms (CD) harbored a high proportion of Vibrionaceae, of which a high abundance of V. parahaemolyticus was found in summer. In contrast, Vibrio spp. is rarely found in Chlorella and nonchitinous diatoms. Taxon-specific associations were also observed, including a relatively high abundance of Vibrio and Halodesulfovibrio on copepods and covariation of Aeromonas and Bacillus inside the Chlorella. The survival assays showed that, in comparison to trh-negative V. parahaemolyticus, trh-positive V. parahaemolyticus showed better survival in copepods and CD under starvation conditions and maintained high persistence in the above hosts at low temperature. In conclusion, the results herein suggested that chitinous plankton might provide protection for V. parahaemolyticus, especially trh-positive V. parahaemolyticus, and improve their persistence under harsh conditions. Our study provided in-depth insights into the persistence of V. parahaemolyticus in the environment, which would promote targeted disease prevention measures.