Integrated Multi-Omics Analysis Provides No Evidence for Pathogenicity of Balantidium Ctenopharyngodoni in Grass Carp Hindgut
5 affiliations
- 1State Key Laboratory of Breeding Biotechnology and Sustainable Aquaculture, Wuhan 430072, China
- 2Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China
- 3Jiujiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jiujiang 332000, China
- 4Freshwater Fisheries Research Institute of Fujian, Fuzhou 350002, China
- 5Zhejiang Institute of Freshwater Fisheries, Huzhou 313001, China
Abstract
Balantidium ctenopharyngodoni Chen, 1955 is the only ciliate species known to inhabit the digestive tract of grass carp, where it predominantly resides in the spaces between mucosal folds and within the intestinal contents of the hindgut with a high prevalence. Despite its high prevalence, the pathogenicity remains controversial. The intestinal bacterial microbiota interacts closely with enteric protozoa, and such interactions may alter host–parasite dynamics, with consequences for host susceptibility and overall health. In this study, we conducted a feeding experiment with three different dietary regimes to explore the effects of B. ctenopharyngodoni colonization on grass carp, using an integrative approach that combined microbial amplicon sequencing, metabolomics, and intestinal transcriptomics. Our results showed that balantidia colonization was associated with slightly lower body length and body weight, although these differences were not statistically significant. Balantidia colonization was also related to altered microbiota composition and diversity: the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes was more abundant in the balantidia-positive fish with a plant-based diet, while alphaproteobacteria and betaproteobacteria were enriched in the balantidia-positive fish with commercial feed. Although B. ctenopharyngodoni moderately perturbed the microbial profiles and metabolic processes of the grass carp hindgut, intestinal transcriptomic analysis did not detect significant transcriptional changes in immune-related genes between balantidia-positive and balantidia-negative groups. Collectively, under the tested dietary and physiological conditions, our findings provide no evidence of overt pathogenicity, further supporting the view that B. ctenopharyngodoni acts as a commensal ciliate in the grass carp hindgut.
Related
- CellMethMarker provides an integrated database of human cell- and tissue-type-specific DNA methylation markers
- Pathogenicity of NUSAP1 Variants Is Defined by NMD‐Escape: Evidence From Two Novel Cases and Systematic Population‐Based Variant Analysis
- From seropositivity to pathogenicity: causal evidence for autoantibodies in myasthenia gravis
- MetaSplice: pathogenicity prediction and ACMG/AMP evidence for intronic variants outside the canonical splice sites
- VOC·BIO Library: An Integrated Platform for Published Aphid GC-MS Evidence, Biological Contexts, Cheminformatics and Exploratory OBP Docking
BibTeX
@article{zhao2026integrated,
title = {{Integrated Multi-Omics Analysis Provides No Evidence for Pathogenicity of Balantidium Ctenopharyngodoni in Grass Carp Hindgut}},
author = {Weishan Zhao and Lei Fang and Weitian Zhou and Xialian Bu and Shangong Wu and Hong Zou and Wenxiang Li and Guitang Wang and Ming Li},
journal = {International Journal of Molecular Sciences},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3390/ijms27219425},
url = {https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/27/21/9425},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Integrated Multi-Omics Analysis Provides No Evidence for Pathogenicity of Balantidium Ctenopharyngodoni in Grass Carp Hindgut
AU - Weishan Zhao
AU - Lei Fang
AU - Weitian Zhou
AU - Xialian Bu
AU - Shangong Wu
AU - Hong Zou
AU - Wenxiang Li
AU - Guitang Wang
AU - Ming Li
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
JO - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
DO - 10.3390/ijms27219425
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/27/21/9425
AB - Balantidium ctenopharyngodoni Chen, 1955 is the only ciliate species known to inhabit the digestive tract of grass carp, where it predominantly resides in the spaces between mucosal folds and within the intestinal contents of the hindgut with a high prevalence. Despite its high prevalence, the pathogenicity remains controversial. The intestinal bacterial microbiota interacts closely with enteric protozoa, and such interactions may alter host–parasite dynamics, with consequences for host susceptibility and overall health. In this study, we conducted a feeding experiment with three different dietary regimes to explore the effects of B. ctenopharyngodoni colonization on grass carp, using an integrative approach that combined microbial amplicon sequencing, metabolomics, and intestinal transcriptomics. Our results showed that balantidia colonization was associated with slightly lower body length and body weight, although these differences were not statistically significant. Balantidia colonization was also related to altered microbiota composition and diversity: the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes was more abundant in the balantidia-positive fish with a plant-based diet, while alphaproteobacteria and betaproteobacteria were enriched in the balantidia-positive fish with commercial feed. Although B. ctenopharyngodoni moderately perturbed the microbial profiles and metabolic processes of the grass carp hindgut, intestinal transcriptomic analysis did not detect significant transcriptional changes in immune-related genes between balantidia-positive and balantidia-negative groups. Collectively, under the tested dietary and physiological conditions, our findings provide no evidence of overt pathogenicity, further supporting the view that B. ctenopharyngodoni acts as a commensal ciliate in the grass carp hindgut.
SN - 1422-0067
ER -