New article of ChallenGen accepted!

by Xavier Turon

Another article including results from ChallenGen has been accepted for publication in Frontiers in Microbiology. The title of the paper is “Temporal stability of bacterial symbionts in a temperate ascidian” by López-Legentil S, Turon X, Espluga R, Erwin PM.

This article is the result of collaborative work between the projects ChallenGen and MarSymbiOmics (CTM2013-43287). The goal of MarSymbiOmics is the study of symbioses of invertebrates from a molecular perspective. It is only natural that we coordinate efforts… We are more focused on the genetics of the host, while the MarSymbiOmics team is interested in the genetics of the microbiome.

A colony of Didemnum fulgens in the monitoring site at L’Escala (Catalan coast, NW Mediterranean).

In this particular study we have monitored the population of an ascidian species, Didemnum fulgens, over an annual cycle. Its pattern of growth and reproduction has been published a while ago (López-Legentil S, Erwin PM, Velasco M, Turon X. 2013. Growing or reproducing in a temperate sea: optimization of resource allocation in a colonial ascidian, Invertebrate Biology 132:69-80).

Now we publish the results of the temporal changes in microbiome composition of that same population using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) and clone library analyses based on the16S rRNA gene. The overall bacterial community in D. fulgens had a distinct signature from the surrounding seawater and was stable over time and across seasonal fluctuations in temperature. Bacterial symbionts were also observed in the inner tunic of larvae of D. fulgens. Our results suggest that, as seen for sponges and corals, some species of ascidians host stable and unique bacterial communities that are at least partially inherited by their progeny by vertical transmission.

Soon available in Open Access!!!