the DNA sequence—or its content of (guanine + cytosine) more specifically—and the percentage of denaturing gradi- ent in the DGGE gel needed to describe the total diversity of the sample analyzed (Marzorati et al. 2008). The higher the Rr is, the higher the probability that the environment can host more different species with a higher genetic variability. The equal trends in Rr and average fish weight gain for the sea bass in this study indicated a relationship between the conditions for bacterial growth in the gastrointestinal tract and the growth performance on the fish. These results warrant further research on the possibility to use the (calculated) structure and functionality of the intestinal microbial commu- nity as an indicator for the growth performance or health status of aquaculture species and the changes therein.
It is not clear whether the change in the bacterial community is resulting from or causing the PHB degrada- tion. Potentially, fish enzymes in the gastrointestinal tract (partially) degraded the PHB into β-hydroxybutyrate oligomers and monomers, which could be used as a growth source for the bacteria. This would mean that the change in the bacterial community is the result of the enzymatic PHB degradation. On the other hand, the presence of PHB may have stimulated the PHB degrading organisms. In this case, the adapting bacterial community would have caused the PHB degradation. Of course, a combination of both bacterial and fish enzymatic degradation of the PHB is also possible.
The partial substitution of the feed with PHB had no negative effect on the survival of the sea bass. However, even in the control treatment the overall mortality was rather high (ca. 10%). In other experiments using similar rearing tank set-ups, such high mortalities did not occur (De Schryver et al. unpublished). This could indicate that the batch of sea bass used in this experiment had a low health status, which possibly allowed the beneficial effect of PHB to occur stronger. However, the overall health status was quantified neither at the beginning nor at the end of the experiment. The increased survival of the fish fed with only PHB (100% PHB treatment) when compared to the nonfed treatment and the decreasing values in pH suggested that the PHB was at least partially degraded and absorbed during gastrointestinal passage in the fish. This was already hypothesized earlier by Defoirdt et al. (2007b). If PHB is not contained within a bacterial cell, it can be degraded by microbial extracellular hydrolytic enzymes in order to obtain carbon and energy (Gebauer and Jendrossek 2006). From various ecosystems, a high number of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria producing these extracellular PHB depolymerases have been isolated (Jendrossek and Handrick 2002; Tokiwa and Calabia 2007). The presence of such bacteria has until now not been shown in the gastrointestinal tract of animals. Efforts to isolate PHB degrading microorganisms from the gastrointestinal environment and apply these as probiotics in aquaculture production are currently being performed.
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