Data from: Convergent shifts in host-associated microbial communities across environmentally elicited phenotypes

Morphological plasticity is a genotype-by-environment interaction that enables organisms to increase fitness across varying environments. Symbioses with diverse microbiota may aid in acclimating to this variation, but whether the associated bacteria community is phenotype-specific remains unstudied. Here we induce morphological plasticity in three species of sea urchins and measure changes in the associated bacterial community. While each host species had unique microbial communities, the expression of morphological plasticity resulted in the convergence for a phenotype-specific microbiome that was, in part, driven by differentially associating with α- and γ-proteobacteria. Furthermore, these results suggest that phenotype-specific signatures were the product of the environment, and are correlated with ingestive and digestive structures. By manipulating diet quantity over time, we also support that differentially associating with microbiota along a phenotypic continuum is bidirectional. Taken together, our data support the idea of a phenotype-specific microbial community and that phenotypic plasticity extends beyond a genotype-by-environment interaction.形态可塑性（Morphological plasticity）是一种基因型-环境互作现象，可使生物体在多变环境中提升适合度。与多样微生物群形成共生关系或有助于生物体适应这种环境变化，但目前尚未明确宿主相关细菌群落是否具有表型特异性。本研究通过诱导3种海胆产生形态可塑性，并检测其宿主相关细菌群落的变化。尽管每种宿主物种的微生物群落均具有独特性，但形态可塑性的表达会促使其形成具有表型特异性的微生物组，这种变化在一定程度上由与α-变形菌门（α-proteobacteria）和γ-变形菌门（γ-proteobacteria）的差异化关联所驱动。此外，本研究结果表明，表型特异性特征是环境作用的产物，且与宿主的摄食及消化结构密切相关。通过随时间调控饵料投喂量，本研究进一步证实，沿表型连续体与微生物群形成差异化关联的过程是双向的。综上，本研究数据支持了表型特异性微生物群落的存在，且表明形态可塑性的范畴已超出基因型-环境互作的范畴。