Microbial Distortion? Impacts of Delayed Preservation on Microbiome Diversity and Composition in a Marine Invertebrate.

ABSTRACT: Field collections of marine invertebrates are often accompanied by delays in preservation, which may impact microbiome composition. Here, we tested the effects of delayed preservation and relaxation methods on microbiome diversity and composition in the colonial ascidian Trididemnum solidum using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Replicate samples collected from Belizean reefs were either (1) immediately preserved in ethanol ("control"), (2) held in ambient seawater for 3 h before preservation ("SW"), or (3) held in ambient seawater with menthol (a common pre-preservation relaxation technique for ascidian identification) for 3 h before preservation ("SW + M"). All T. solidum microbiomes were different from ambient seawater bacterioplankton and dominated by the same microbial taxa, including th

SUBMITTER: Hutchings B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12081327 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature