Health status-associated microbiota fingerprints within the oral cavity of cetaceans

Human impacts affect directly ocean life, often leading marine species to an endangered status. Cetaceans, particularly the Odontoceti, occupy high trophic levels (predators, primary or secondary consumers) and, consequently, their condition and wellbeing reflect the health and status of lower trophic levels. Moreover, the composition of mammalian microbiota has been related with either health or disease statuses of the host. Recently, a metabarcoding 16S rRNA-based approach was successfully implemented to investigate microbial communities present in a striped dolphin [1] stranded in Continental Portugal. In this study, we implemented the methodology validated by Godoy-Vitorino et al. 2017 [1] to assess the oral microbiome of 3 cetacean species most commonly found stranded in Iberian Atlantic waters (the common dolphin Delphinus delphis, the stripped dolphin Stenella coeruleoalba and the harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena), using 16S rDNA-amplicon metabarcoding. A Constrained Canonical Analysis approach (CCA) showed that the major factors shaping the composition of 38 oral microbiomes (p-value