Quantifying dominant bacterial genera detected in metagenomic data from
fish eggs and larvae using genus-specific primers
Abstract
The goal of this study was to design genus-specific primers for rapid
evaluation of the most abundant bacterial genera identified using
amplicon-based sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene in fish-related samples
and surrounding water. Efficient genus-specific primers were designed
for eleven bacterial genera including Alkalimarinus, Colwellia,
Enterovibrio, Marinomonas, Massilia, Oleispira, Phaeobacter,
Photobacterium, Polarbacerium, Pseudomonas, and Psychrobium. The
specificity of the primers was confirmed by the phylogeny of the
sequenced polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplicons that indicated
primers were genus-specific except in the case of Colwellia and
Phaeobacter. Copy number of the 16S rRNA gene obtained by quantitative
PCR using genus-specific primers and the relative abundance obtained by
16S rRNA gene sequencing using universal primers were well correlated
for the five analyzed abundant bacterial genera. Low correlations
between quantitative PCR and 16S rRNA gene sequencing for Pseudomonas
were explained by the higher coverage of known Pseudomonas species by
the designed genus-specific primers than the universal primers used in
16S rRNA gene sequencing. The designed genus-specific primers are
proposed as rapid and cost-effective tools to evaluate the most abundant
bacterial genera in fish-related or potentially other metagenomics
samples.