Department of Marine and Environmental Science, Northeastern University, Nahant, Massachusetts, USA.
Environ Microbiol Rep. 2024 Oct;16(5):e70026. doi: 10.1111/1758-2229.70026.
Marine animals often harbour complex microbial communities that influence their physiology. However, strong evidence for resident microbiomes in marine bivalves is lacking, despite their contribution to estuarine habitats and coastal economies. We investigated whether marine bivalves harbour stable, resident microorganisms in specific tissues or if their microbiomes primarily consist of transient members reflecting the environmental microbial pool. Conducting a latitudinal study of wild eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) along the East Coast of the United States, we aimed to identify resident microorganisms that persist across a wide geographical range. Our results revealed that microbial communities in seawater and sediment samples followed latitudinal diversity patterns driven by geographic location. In contrast, oyster-associated microbiomes were distinct from their surrounding environments and exhibited tissue-specific compositions. Notably, oyster microbiomes showed greater similarity within the same tissue type across different geographic locations than among different tissue types within the same location. This indicates the presence of tissue-specific resident microbes that persist across large geographical ranges. We identified a persistent set of resident microbiome members for each tissue type, with key microbial members consistent across all locations. These findings underscore the oyster host's role in selecting its microbiome and highlight the importance of tissue-specific microbial communities in understanding bivalve-associated microbiomes.
海洋动物通常拥有复杂的微生物群落，这些微生物会影响它们的生理机能。然而，尽管海洋双壳贝类对河口栖息地和沿海经济有贡献，但仍缺乏其体内常驻微生物组的有力证据。我们研究了海洋双壳贝类是否在特定组织中拥有稳定的常驻微生物，或者它们的微生物组是否主要由反映环境微生物库的短暂成员组成。我们对美国东海岸的野生东方牡蛎（Crassostrea virginica）进行了纬度研究，旨在确定在广泛地理范围内存在的常驻微生物。研究结果表明，海水和沉积物样本中的微生物群落遵循由地理位置驱动的纬度多样性模式。相比之下，牡蛎相关的微生物组与其周围环境不同，具有组织特异性的组成。值得注意的是，在相同的地理位置中，同种组织类型的牡蛎微生物组之间的相似性大于不同组织类型之间的相似性。这表明存在具有组织特异性的常驻微生物，它们可以在很大的地理范围内存在。我们为每种组织类型确定了一组常驻微生物组成员，这些成员在所有地点都是一致的。这些发现强调了牡蛎宿主在选择其微生物组方面的作用，并突出了组织特异性微生物群落在理解双壳贝类相关微生物组中的重要性。
