16S rRNA metagenomic analysis of bacterial communities in the gut of deep-sea Holothurian species plus ambient sediment and seawater

Sea cucumbers are encountered in benthic marine habitats worldwide. Their typical diet, i.e. sediment, passes from the mouth into a long coiled intestine that leads up to the anus. At present, there is little knowledge about differences in bacterial composition between intestines of different sea cucumbers species, and the potential effects thereupon of environmental variables. Therefore, we analyzed the bacterial composition of intestines of sea cucumber individuals belonging to five species (n=13) plus ambient sediment (n=8) and seawater (n=6) samples, all of which were collected from the deep-sea at three sampling locations in the South-East Pacific. The samples were subjected to V4 region 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing.