Diel patterning in the bacterial community associated with the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis

Microbes can play an important role in the physiology of animals by providing essential nutrients, inducing immune pathways, and influencing the specific species that compose the microbiome through competitive or facilitatory interactions. The community of microbes associated with animals can be dynamic depending on the local environment, and factors that influence the composition of the microbiome are essential to our understanding of how microbes may influence the biology of their animal hosts. Regularly repeated changes in the environment, such as diel lighting, can result in two different organismal responses: a direct response to the presence and absence of exogenous light and endogenous rhythms resulting from a molecular circadian clock, both of which can influence the associated microbiota. Here, we report how diel lighting and a potential circadian clock impacts the diversity and relative abundance of bacteria in the model cnidarian Nematostella vectensis using an amplicon-based...微生物可通过提供必需营养素、诱导免疫通路，以及通过竞争或促进性相互作用调控宿主微生物组（microbiome）的物种组成，进而在动物的生理机能中发挥关键作用。与动物共生的微生物群落可随局部环境发生动态变化，而解析影响微生物组组成的各类因素，是理解微生物如何调控其动物宿主生物学特性的核心前提。环境的规律性周期性变化（如昼夜光照）可引发两类不同的机体响应：一是对外源光照存在与否的直接响应，二是由分子生物钟（circadian clock）驱动的内源性生理节律，二者均可对与之共生的微生物群落产生影响。本研究利用基于扩增子的实验方法，探究了昼夜光照与潜在生物钟如何影响模型刺胞动物星状海葵（Nematostella vectensis）体内细菌的多样性及相对丰度……