Fish skin microbiomes shift dramatically as species transition from aquatic to terrestrial habitats
Researchers studying three combtooth blenny fish species found that their skin microbiomes diverge significantly based on habitat, with the most terrestrial species showing the most distinct microbial communities. The study compared skin bacteria across species occupying different zones of the intertidal gradient in Guam, from fully aquatic to exclusively terrestrial environments. The findings suggest microbial symbionts may play a role in enabling amphibious lifestyles and provide insights into how microbiomes respond to environmental change.
A bioRxiv preprint characterizes skin microbiomes across three combtooth blenny species that occupy progressively higher intertidal zones in Guam, ranging from fully aquatic to terrestrial habitats. Using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, researchers compared skin-associated bacterial communities with seawater and substrate biofilms, finding that fish skin microbiomes were distinctly different from environmental microbial communities, indicating strong host-driven ecological filtering. The supratidal species Alticus arnoldorum, which lives exclusively on land, showed the most divergent microbiome, enriched in Gammaproteobacteria and epiphytic taxa. Across all species, 32 microbial orders were significantly enriched on skin relative to environmental samples, including common fish-associated taxa like Vibrio and Alteromonas, as well as rarely reported marine fish bacteria. The researchers propose that habitat-specific selective pressures shape fish skin microbiomes along the aquatic-to-terrestrial gradient and that microbial symbionts may contribute to physiological adaptations enabling amphibious lifestyles.
What's missing
The study does not discuss potential mechanisms by which specific microbial taxa facilitate terrestrial adaptation, nor does it address whether microbiome changes precede or follow morphological/physiological adaptations to terrestrial life. The temporal dynamics of microbiome shifts during individual development or evolutionary timescales remain unexplored.
What different sources said
- bioRxivCenter
Skin microbiome mirrors habitat divergence in amphibious combtooth blenny fish (Teleostei, Blenniidae)
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