Eukaryotic food sources analysis in situ of tropical common sea cucumber Holothuria leucospilota based on 18S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing

Sea cucumber Holothuria leucospilota is one of the most widespread tropical holothurian species.In this study,eukaryotic organism composition in foregut and hindgut contents of H.leucospilota and surrounding sediments was assessed by 18S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing.Eukaryon richness and diversity in the habitat sediments were significantly higher than those in foregut and hindgut contents of the sea cucumbers(P<0.05).The foregut content group,hindgut content group,and marine sediment group sequences were respectively assigned to 18.20±1.32,19.40±1.03,and 21.80±0.37 phyla.In the foregut contents,Nematoda(20.18%±9.59%),Mollusca(16.12%±10.49%),Chlorophyta(10.04%±4.85%),Annelida(8.72%±10.93%),Streptophyta(8.46%±4.65%),and Diatomea(5.99%±2.01%)were the predominant phyla,which showed the eukaryotic food sources of H.leucospilota were primarily belong to the above phyla.The predominant phyla in the hindgut contents were Streptophyta(45.55%±17.32%),Mollusca(4.93%±4.82%),Arthropoda(5.37%±3.08%),Diatomea(3.88%±2.34%),and Chlorophyta(3.79%±1.59%);and Annelida(37.80%±17.00%),Arthropoda(24.49%±12.53%),Platyhelminthes(7.14%±3.02%),Nematoda(4.14%±0.91%),and Diatomea(5.11%±1.35%)had large contents in the sediments.The comparatively high content of Paris genus in phylum Streptophyta in foregut contents indicated that land plants were one of the primary food sources of H.leucospilota,however the significantly higher contents of Streptophyta in hindgut contents than that in foregut contents might suggest a large part of the terrigenous detritus ingested might not be digested by H.leucospilota.UPGMA and PCoA analysis revealed that eukaryotic organism composition differed significantly between foregut contents of H.leucospilota and ambient sediments,indicating selective feeding feature of H.leucospilota.This study provided useful references for artificial feed of tropical sea cucumbers and enhanced understanding of the ecological roles of detritus-feeding macrobenthos.