COMPARISON OF THE INTESTINAL BACTERIAL COMMUNITIES BETWEEN GRASS CARP (CTENOPHARYNGODON IDELLUS) AND BLUNTNOSE BLACK BREAM (MEGALOBRAMA AMBLYCEPHALA)

To compare the intestinal bacterial communities of two commercial herbivorous fishes (grass carp and bluntnose black bream), we conducted polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) of 16S rRNA genes. Fishes captured from Wuhu Lake were used to isolate and amplify the variable V3 region of 16S rRNA gene with bacterial domain-specific primers F357 (5'-CCTACGGGAGGCAGCAG-3' with GC clamp in the 5'end) and 518R (5'-ATTACCGCGGCTGCTGG-3'). Using both the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic means (UPGMA) clustering and principal component analysis (PCA) ordination, we observed that the intestinal bacterial communities of the two herbivorous fishes were similar but the individual differences appeared to be more obvious. The results of sequence showed that -Proteobacteria, Fusobacteria, Firmicutes exist both in the intestine of the grass carp and bluntnose black bream; while Bacteroidetes only exist in the bluntnose black bream. A further investigation of feeding habits on bacterial community construction may be of benefit to the aquacultural fundamental research.