What does this research mean for the field?

Bacterial communities in the sea cucumber Holothuria leucospilota exhibit pronounced compartment-specific differentiation across the epidermis, foregut, and hindgut, which is shaped by selective environmental filtering and supports complementary metabolic functions. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.INCREMENTAL. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To assess how environmental filtering influences bacterial community assembly and functional diversity across distinct anatomical compartments and surrounding sediments in the sea cucumber Holothuria leucospilota.

August 29, 2026MicroorganismsOpen Access

Compartment-Specific Differentiation of Bacterial Communities in the Sea Cucumber Holothuria leucospilota from the South China Sea

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Authors

XCXiaoyu ChenSun Yat-sen University XCXinye ChenSouth China Agricultural University JSJinrong ShouSouth China Agricultural University

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Implication

High-throughput sequencing reveals compartment-specific bacterial differentiation in sea cucumbers, suggesting selective environmental filtering and metabolic niche partitioning.

Key Points

To assess how environmental filtering influences bacterial community assembly and functional diversity across distinct anatomical compartments and surrounding sediments in the sea cucumber Holothuria leucospilota.
Collected environmental sediments, body epidermis, foregut, and hindgut samples (n = 4 per group) from H. leucospilota in the South China Sea.
Conducted Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes, generating 749,222 high-quality sequences clustered into 911 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), followed by KEGG functional pathway annotation.
Alpha diversity was highest in environmental sediments (Shannon index: 7.33 ± 0.11), with beta-diversity demonstrating clear differentiation among sediments, epidermis, foregut, and hindgut communities.
Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes dominated overall; Woeseia occurred only in sediments, Vibrio dominated sediments and foregut, and NS11-12 marine group, Rhodobacteraceae, and Rhizobiaceae enriched the epidermis.
Functional profiling revealed enrichment in core carbohydrate and amino acid degradation pathways, highlighting complementary metabolic niche partitioning across compartmentalized taxa.

Cite This Study

Chen et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a92995f8e5d7d1fc0c114e6 https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms14091900

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Implication

High-throughput sequencing reveals compartment-specific bacterial differentiation in sea cucumbers, suggesting selective environmental filtering and metabolic niche partitioning.

Compartment-Specific Differentiation of Bacterial Communities in the Sea Cucumber Holothuria leucospilota from the South China Sea

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Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

Compartment-Specific Differentiation of Bacterial Communities in the Sea Cucumber Holothuria leucospilota from the South China Sea

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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