Metagenomics of symbiotic Bathymodiolus mussels from a hybrid zone

Symbiont composition strongly influences the metabolic potential and ecological success of symbioses. To analyse the impact of host genetics on symbiont composition in Bathymodiolus mussels, we investigated a hybrid zone of B. azoricus and B. puteoserpentis at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. We generated metagenomes to examine whether hybrid individuals harbour different SOX symbionts than their parental species. We compared the SOX symbionts regarding (1) their phylogeny based on marker genes (2) their genome-wide average nucleotide identity (3) abundances of their functional genes (4) their population differentiation based on single-nucleotide polymorphisms.