Characterization of bacterial ectosymbionts colonizing gills and endophragm of mangrove crabs

Mangrove crabs are diverse, and their habitats range from marine to terrestrial. In Guadeloupe, several species co-exist. Unexpectedly, these were found to harbor dense microbial communities on the surface of their gills, on the endophragm and on the carapace. This project aims at characterizing the bacteria that occur on the different body regions of several mangrove crab species in an effort to explore the diversity and functions of associated bacteria, and investigate their role as potential symbionts.