Temporal and Regional Variability in the Skin Microbiome of Humpback Whales along the Western Antarctic Peninsula.

ABSTRACT: The skin is the first line of defense between an animal and its environment, and disruptions in skin-associated microorganisms can be linked to an animal's health and nutritional state. To better understand the skin microbiome of large whales, high-throughput sequencing of partial small subunit rRNA genes was used to study the skin-associated bacteria of 89 seemingly healthy humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) sampled along the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) during early (2010) and late (2013) austral summers. Six core groups of bacteria were present in 93% or more of all humpback skin samples. A shift was observed in the average relative abundances of these core bacteria over time, with the emergence of four additional core groups of bacteria that corresponded to a decrease

SUBMITTER: Bierlich KC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5812929 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature