Carruthers Lauren V, Nordmeyer Stephanie C, Anderson Timothy Jc, Chevalier Frédéric D, Le Clec'h Winka
School of Infection and Immunity, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8TA, UK.
Texas Biomedical Research Institute, PO Box 760549, San Antonio, TX 78258.
bioRxiv. 2025 Jan 15:2024.06.11.598555. doi: 10.1101/2024.06.11.598555.
The microbiome is increasingly recognized to shape many aspects of its host biology and is a key determinant of health and disease. The microbiome may influence transmission of pathogens by their vectors, such as mosquitoes or aquatic snails. We previously sequenced the V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene from the hemolymph (blood) of spp. snails, vectors of the human blood fluke schistosome. We showed that snail hemolymph harbored an abundant and diverse microbiome. This microbiome is distinct from the water environment and can discriminate snail species and populations. As hemolymph bathes snail organs, we then investigated the heterogeneity of the microbiome in these organs.
We dissected ten snails for each of two different species ( and ) and collected their hemolymph and organs (ovotestis, hepatopancreas, gut, and stomach). We also ground in liquid nitrogen four whole snails of each species. We sampled the water in which the snails were living (environmental controls). Sequencing the 16S rRNA gene revealed organ-specific microbiomes. These microbiomes harbored a lower diversity than the hemolymph microbiome, and the whole-snail microbiome. The organ microbiomes tend to cluster by physiological function. In addition, we showed that the whole-snail microbiome is more similar to hemolymph microbiome.
These results are critical for future work on snail microbiomes and show the necessity of sampling individual organ microbiomes to provide a complete description of snail microbiomes.
微生物组对其宿主生物学的多个方面的影响日益受到认可，是健康和疾病的关键决定因素。微生物组可能通过其媒介（如蚊子或水生蜗牛）影响病原体的传播。我们之前对人体血吸虫病的媒介——某些种类蜗牛的血淋巴（血液）中的细菌16S rRNA基因的V4区域进行了测序。我们发现蜗牛血淋巴中存在丰富多样的微生物组。这种微生物组与水环境不同，能够区分蜗牛的种类和种群。由于血淋巴浸润着蜗牛的器官，我们随后研究了这些器官中微生物组的异质性。
我们解剖了两种不同种类（分别为 和 ）的十只蜗牛，收集了它们的血淋巴和器官（卵睾、肝胰腺、肠道和胃）。我们还将每种蜗牛的四只完整蜗牛在液氮中研磨。我们对蜗牛生活的水进行了采样（环境对照）。对16S rRNA基因进行测序揭示了器官特异性微生物组。这些微生物组的多样性低于血淋巴微生物组和全蜗牛微生物组。器官微生物组倾向于按生理功能聚类。此外，我们表明全蜗牛微生物组与血淋巴微生物组更为相似。
这些结果对未来关于蜗牛微生物组的研究至关重要，并表明有必要对单个器官微生物组进行采样，以全面描述蜗牛微生物组。
