Dissecting the factors shaping fish skin microbiomes in a heterogeneous inland water system.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Fish skin microbiomes are rarely studied in inland water systems, in spite of their importance for fish health and ecology. This is mainly because fish species distribution often covaries with other biotic and abiotic factors, complicating the study design. We tackled this issue in the northern part of the Jordan River system, in which a few fish species geographically overlap, across steep gradients of water temperature and salinity.

Results

Using 16S rRNA metabarcoding, we studied the water properties that shape the skin bacterial communities, and their interaction with fish taxonomy. To better characterise the indigenous skin community, we excluded bacteria that were equally abundant in the skin samples and in the water samples, from our analysis of the skin sa

SUBMITTER: Krotman Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6995075 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature