public read Prof. Tomoo Swabe Hokkaido University Full Professor Gut microbiome shapes various aspects of a host’s physiology, but these functions in aquatic animal hosts have been not fully investigated yet. The sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus Selenka is the one. The large growth gap in their body size have delayed the development of intensive aquaculture, nevertheless the species is in urgent need of conservation. To understand the contribution of the gut microbiome to the host animal’s growths, individual fecal microbiome comparisons were performed. High throughput 16S rRNA sequencing revealed significantly different microbiota in larger and smaller individuals, Rhodobacterales in particular was the most significantly abundant bacterial group in the larger specimens. Further shotgun metagenome of representative specimens revealed a significant abundance of microbiome retaining polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) metabolism genes in the largest individuals. The PHB metabolism reads were potentially derived from Rhodobacterales. These results imply an unexpected link between microbial PHB producers and potential growth promotion in Deuterostomia marine invertebrates. All sequences generated in this study can be downloaded at https://marinebiodiversity.lncc.br/files/index.php/s/fMA6Cc4nLuWdilp Hokkaido 139.75 141.125 42.625 41.375 2014-07-29 PhD Pedro Meirelles Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Posdoc

Av. Carlos Chagas Fo. S/N CCS - IB - Laboratory of Microbiology e SAGE-COPPE - BLOCO A (Anexo) A3 - sl 102, Cidade Universitária Rio de Janeiro RJ 21941-599 Brazil

+55 21 2562-6567 +55 21 2562-6567 pedrommeirelles@gmail.com http://pedromeirelles.com.br