Convergent shifts in host-associated microbial communities across environmentally elicited phenotypes.

ABSTRACT: Morphological plasticity is a genotype-by-environment interaction that enables organisms to increase fitness across varying environments. Symbioses with diverse microbiota may aid in acclimating to this variation, but whether the associated bacteria community is phenotype specific remains understudied. Here we induce morphological plasticity in three species of sea urchin larvae and measure changes in the associated bacterial community. While each host species has unique bacterial communities, the expression of plasticity results in the convergence on a phenotype-specific microbiome that is, in part, driven by differential association with α- and γ-proteobacteria. Furthermore, these results suggest that phenotype-specific signatures are the product of the environment and are correlated wit

SUBMITTER: Carrier TJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5838112 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature