Red Sea Tridacna maxima bacterial microbiome. Tridacna maxima

Giant clams (family Tridacninae) are prevalent members of coral reef communities that engage in symbioses with algal photosymbionts of the family Symbiodiniaceae, similar to their stony coral counterparts. However, we know little about the associated bacterial microbiome. Here, we explored bacterial community assemblages of the digestive, gill, and mantle tissues across a Red Sea cross-shelf gradient (inshore, midshore, and offshore reef sites) using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing.