Dynamic shifts of epimicrobiome in brown seaweed during bleaching disease

Microbiome imbalance of healthy seaweed-associated microbiomes may cause the bleaching disease. Our results add to the growing body of evidence that pathogenic bacteria-induced epimicrobiome shifts during the disease progression. Health associated bacteria and the secondary opportunistic pathogens found in this study enriched the baseline epimicrobiome knowledge in the farmed seaweeds and paved the way for application of manipulating beneficial microbiomes for pathogen colonization resistance in the farmed seaweed industries.