Effects of dietary arabinoxylan-oligosaccharides (AXOS) and endogenous probiotics on the growth performance, non-specific immunity and gut microbiota of juvenile Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii).

We investigated the effects of administration of putative endogenous probiotics Lactococcus lactis spp. lactis or Bacillus circulans, alone and in combination with arabinoxylan-oligosaccharides (AXOS), a new class of candidate prebiotics, in juvenile Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii). Eight experimental diets were tested: basal diet (Diet 1), basal diet supplemented with 2% AXOS (Diet 2), or L. lactis ST G81 (Diet 3), L. lactis ST G45 (Diet 4), B. circulans ST M53 (Diet 5), L. lactis ST G81 + 2% AXOS (Diet 6), L. lactis ST G45 + 2% AXOS (Diet 7), B. circulans ST M53 + 2% AXOS (Diet 8). After four weeks, growth performance and feed conversion ratio significantly improved in fish fed diet 7. Innate immune responses of fish were boosted with both AXOS and probiotic diets, however synergistic effects of AXOS and probiotic diets were only observed for phagocytic and alternative complement activity. Phagocytic and respiratory burst activity of fish macrophage increased in fish fed diet 2 and 7, while humoral immune responses only increased in fish fed diet 7. Pyrosequencing analysis (16S rDNA) of the hindgut microbiota demonstrated that AXOS improved the colonization or/and growth capacity of L. lactis, as a higher relative abundance of L. lactis was observed in fish receiving diet 7. However, no observable colonization of B. circulans was found in the hindgut of fish fed diet 5 or 8, containing this bacterium. The dietary L. lactis ST G45 + 2% AXOS caused significant alterations in the intestinal microbiota by significantly decreasing in bacterial diversity, demonstrated by the fall in richness and Shannon diversity, and improved growth performance and boosted immune responses of Siberian sturgeon.