Sea Cucumber Intestinal Regeneration Reveals Deterministic Assembly of the Gut Microbiome.

ABSTRACT: The gut microbiome has far-reaching effects on host organism health, so understanding the processes that underlie microbial community assembly in the developing gut is a current research priority. Here, a holothurian (also known as sea cucumber; phylum Echinodermata) host is explored as a promising model system for studying the assembly of the gut microbiome. Holothurians have a unique capacity for evisceration (expulsion of the internal organs), followed by rapid regeneration of the gut, decoupling host ontogeny from gut tissue development and permitting experimental manipulation of the gut microbiome in mature host individuals. Here, evisceration was induced in the sea cucumber Sclerodactyla briareus, and regenerating stomach and intestine microbiomes were characterized before and

SUBMITTER: Weigel BL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7357475 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature