Amplicon sequencing (environmental DNA metabarcoding) of invasive foraminifera bacterial microbiome and environmental samples

We investigated the bacterial microbiome of an invasive foraminifera in the Mediterranean Sea (Amphistegina lobifera). We used amplicon sequencing (metabarcoding) of the 16S (bacteria) rRNA genes. We analyzed specimens from their native habitat (Red Sea), specimens at an early stage of the invasion (Eastern Mediterranean), and specimens from two locations at the invasive front in Sicily. Finally, we compared the microbial interactome of the foraminifera to the bacterial community of the surrounding environment (sediment and seawater) at each location. The dataset contains all the sequences (FASTQ.gz files) and negative controls (NCs) of the DNA extraction. The NCs followed the samples in all further steps (PCR, Purification, Illumina Sequencing)