Transgenerational adaptative phenotypic plasticity in infection resistance of Crassostrea gigas upon early microbial exposure

The microbiota has an influence on the innate immune response in invertebrates. An exposure to microorganisms, during the early development of Crassostrea gigas larvae, has been applied in order to shape the immune system of oysters: We exposed oysters larvae to a microorganisms enriched water and evaluated the impact of this exposure on the juveniles in response to the Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome disease. We found an improved survival in the exposed generation but also in the two subsequent generations. We generated 16S bar-coding, RNA-Seq, BS-Seq and DNA-Seq analyses to examine the microbiota, transcriptomic, epigenetic and genetic changes which may occur in the oysters in response to this microbial exposure.