16S microbiome of larvae and juveniles of Gigantidas childressi

The goals of this study were to describe microbial community dynamics during key life-history transitions in the chemosymbiotic, deep-sea mussel Gigantidas childressi. Despite many studies targeting their specific chemosynthetic symbionts, the microbiome of this unique and ecologically relevant host has never been investigated. We sequenced the V3-V4 regions of the 16S rRNA gene, targeting bacterial DNA present in veligers, pediveligers, small juveniles, and adult gill snips.