A First Insight into the Gut Microbiota of the Sea Turtle Caretta caretta

The aim of this work is the characterization, for the first time, of the gut microbiota of the sea turtle C. caretta, to shed a preliminary light on its features with respect to other reptiles and to marine vertebrates. Both feces and intestine samples were taken to have the wider overview of gut microbiota taxonomic composition.This first investigation on the gut microbiota of C. caretta showed a pattern of taxa which include well know members colonizing vertebrate guts. In particular the most abundant phyla found (Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes) are also abundant in the human gut (Ley et al., 2008) as well as in other land vertebrates and reptiles (Costello et al., 2010; Keenan et al., 2013). However, especially in the feces samples, Gammaproteobacteria were particularly present (more than 15% of total reads) including member of Oceanospirillales, Alteromonadaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, Enterobacteriaceae. Moreover, as suggested by T1 and T3 samples, quite important differences in the microbiota could be detected, which may be related to the influence of hospitalization in most of the sampled animals.