Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
The Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California, USA.
Microbiol Spectr. 2022 Jun 29;10(3):e0198221. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.01982-21. Epub 2022 May 10.
The Olympia oyster () of the Puget Sound suffered a dramatic population crash, but restoration efforts hope to revive this native species. One overlooked variable in the process of assessing ecosystem health is association of bacteria with marine organisms and the environments they occupy. Oyster microbiomes are known to differ significantly between species, tissue type, and the habitat in which they are found. The goals of this study were to determine the impact of field site and habitat on the oyster microbiome and to identify core oyster-associated bacteria in the Puget Sound. Olympia oysters from one parental family were deployed at four sites in the Puget Sound both inside and outside of eelgrass () beds. Using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of the oyster gut, shell, and surrounding seawater and sediment, we demonstrate that gut-associated bacteria are distinct from the surrounding environment and vary by field site. Furthermore, regional differences in the gut microbiota are associated with the survival rates of oysters at each site after 2 months of field exposure. However, habitat type had no influence on microbiome diversity. Further work is needed to identify the specific bacterial dynamics that are associated with oyster physiology and survival rates. This is the first exploration of the microbial colonizers of the Olympia oyster, a native oyster species to the West Coast, which is a focus of restoration efforts. The patterns of differential microbial colonization by location reveal microscale characteristics of potential restoration sites which are not typically considered. These microbial dynamics can provide a more holistic perspective on the factors that may influence oyster performance.
普吉特海湾的奥林匹亚牡蛎（）经历了一次急剧的种群崩溃，但恢复工作希望能使这种本地物种得以恢复。在评估生态系统健康的过程中，有一个被忽视的变量是细菌与海洋生物及其所占据的环境之间的联系。牡蛎微生物组在物种、组织类型和它们所处的栖息地之间有显著差异是已知的。本研究的目的是确定现场位置和栖息地对牡蛎微生物组的影响，并确定普吉特海湾中与牡蛎相关的核心细菌。来自一个亲代家族的奥林匹亚牡蛎被部署在普吉特海湾的四个地点，包括在鳗草（）床内和外。通过对牡蛎肠道、贝壳和周围海水和沉积物的 16S rRNA 基因扩增子测序，我们证明肠道相关细菌与周围环境不同，并且因现场位置而异。此外，肠道微生物组的区域差异与牡蛎在野外暴露 2 个月后的每个地点的存活率有关。然而，栖息地类型对微生物组多样性没有影响。需要进一步的工作来确定与牡蛎生理和存活率相关的特定细菌动态。这是对西海岸本地牡蛎奥林匹亚牡蛎的微生物定植者的首次探索，这是恢复工作的重点。位置差异的微生物定植模式揭示了潜在恢复地点的微观特征，这些特征通常不被考虑。这些微生物动态可以为可能影响牡蛎性能的因素提供更全面的视角。
