Host-associated microbial 16S sequences from Crassostrea gigas spat raw sequence reads

Oyster aquaculture is a growing industry that depends on spawns of fast-growing, healthy larvae to be sold to hatcheries. Despite nearly identical genetics and environmental conditions in early life stages of animals, larval size can vary drastically, which can impact development and health. As the microbiome can influence the health and size of marine invertebrates, we analyzed the microbiomes of differently-sized juvenile Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) of the same age to examine the relationship of the microbiome with size variation. We used 16S sequencing of 128 animals (n = 60 large, n = 68 small) to characterize the microbiomes of each size class.