Identification, Screening, and Molecular Characterization of Bacterial Microbiota in the guts of Epinephelus sp.

Abstract

Bacterial microbiota is predominantly present in all living organisms. Most of the bacteria present in the gut of the fish are contaminating the food chain. In the present study, we aimed to isolate and characterize the bacteria in the gut of Epinephelus sp. in the red sea of Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Bacteria were isolated from the guts of 10 fish samples and were grown on Luria Bertani (LB) and nutrient agar media. Total thirteen bacterial colonies were screen out by morphological identification i.e., color, shape, structure, etc. which were further reduced to 7 colonies e.g., IF001, IF002, F003, IF004, F005, IF006, and IF007. The bacterial isolates were also identified through molecular identification using 16S-rDNA sequencing. The genomic DNA was isolated and was sequenced using the Sanger® sequencing method. BLAST alignment results that IF001 and IF002 were members Bacillus sp. IF003 was a strain of photobacterium damselae, IF004 and IF006 were strains of Rothia endophytica, IF005 was a strain of Acinetobacter bouvetiiand IF007 was belonged to Shewanella oneidensis. The molecular identification confirmed the identification of bacterial isolates in the Epinephelus sp. obtained from the red sea.