Conserved organ-specific microbial assemblages in different populations of a terrestrial crab

Giovanni Bacci; Sara Fratini; Niccolò Meriggi; Christine L Y Cheng; Ka Hei Ng; Massimo Pindo; Alessio Iannucci; Alessio Mengoni; Duccio Cavalieri; Stefano Cannicci

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1113617

Conserved organ-specific microbial assemblages in different populations of a terrestrial crab

Front Microbiol. 2023 Jun 12:14:1113617. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1113617. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Giovanni Bacci¹, Sara Fratini^{1

2}, Niccolò Meriggi¹, Christine L Y Cheng², Ka Hei Ng², Massimo Pindo³, Alessio Iannucci^{1

2}, Alessio Mengoni¹, Duccio Cavalieri^{1

2}, Stefano Cannicci^{1

2

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
² NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy.
³ The Swire Institute of Marine Science, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China.

Abstract

Microorganisms are ubiquitous in the environment and provide genetic and physiological functions to multicellular organisms. Knowledge on the associated microbiota is becoming highly relevant to understand the host's ecology and biology. Among invertebrates, many examples of endosymbiosis have been described, such as those in corals, ants, and termites. At present, however, little is known on the presence, diversity, and putative roles of the microbiota associated to brachyuran crabs in relation to their environment. In this work we investigated the associated microbiota of three populations of the terrestrial brachyuran crab Chiromantes haematocheir to find evidence of a conserved organ-specific microbiome unrelated to the population of origin and dissimilar from environmental microbial assemblages. Bacterial 16S rRNA gene and fungal ITS sequences were obtained from selected crab organs and environmental matrices to profile microbial communities. Despite the presence of truly marine larval stages and the absence of a gregarious behaviour, favouring microbiota exchanges, we found common, organ-specific microbiota, associated with the gut and the gills of crabs from the different populations (with more than 15% of the genera detected specifically enriched only in one organ). These findings suggest the presence of possible functional roles of the organ-specific microbiota.

Keywords: bacterial communities; coastal forests; host-microbe associations; organ-associated microbiota; sesarmid crab.