Microbiome of invasive and native Ciona intestinalis

The microbial community associated with the gut and tunic of Ciona intestinalis was characterized by 16SrRNA gene amplicon sequencing of the hypervariable V3-V4 region. Samples were taken from individuals of one invaded (Prince Edward Island, Canada) and two native habitats (Helgoland and Kiel, Germany). This comparative microbiome profiling approach of native and invasive specimens was used to investigate whether certain bacterial taxa promote the massive colonization of Ciona in PEI.