Background:

Octopus is a fishery product of economic importance worldwide, the main species caught on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea are Octopus maya and O. vulgaris, the first represents up to 95 % of national production.

Goals:

Identify the bacterial flora associated with commercial Octopus maya captured in the Yucatan Peninsula, using PCR-DGGE.

Methods:

From the metagenomic DNAs (mDNAs) extracted from samples representative of the octopus muscle, PCR products were synthesized with universal primers for bacteria (gc338F and 518R) and specific primers for Phylum Firmicutes (FirF: 369 and gcFirR: 1244). They were separated by electrophoresis in denaturing gradient gels (DGGE). The fragmented DNAs were recovered by elution, amplified (338F / 518R and FirF: 369 / FirR: 1244), sequenced and analyzed phylogenetically.

Results:

The sequences amplified with universal primers, after the DNA fragmentation by DGGE were associated with Psychrobacter urativorans, Psychrobacter sp, Pseudomonas sp, Pseudoalteromonas sp, Shewanella sp, Shewanella baltica, Klebsiella oxytoca, Vibrio aestuarianus, Photobacterium sp, Flavobacterium sp, F. antarcticum, Bizionia sp, Flavobacteriaceae bacterium, Bacillus sp, C. divergens, Cetobacterium somerae, Psychrilyobacter atlanticus, Salinimicrobium sp as well as, Flavobacteriaceae not yet classified. In the sequences amplified with specific primers (Phylum Firmicutes) were identified: Carnobacterium sp, Lactococcus piscium Lactococcus sp, and Vagococcus sp

Conclusion:

The bacterial genus detected have been reported in samples from marine environments; therefore, can be part of the native microbial diversity associated with commercial O. maya captured in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.