Aquaculture 2025

March 6 - 10, 2025

New Orleans, Louisiana USA

THE EASTERN OYSTER MICROBIOME AND WITHIN-GENERATION ADAPTATIONS RESULTING FROM REPEATED EXPOSURE TO ENVIRONMENTAL STRESSORS

Jade E. Fiorilla*, Sarah C. Donelan, T. J. Miller, Sarah Gignoux-Wolfsohn

 

Department of Biological Sciences

University of Massachusetts Lowell

Lowell, MA 01854

jade_fiorilla@student.uml.edu

 



Acute coastal stressors such as seasonal hypoxia and warming are immediate threats to healthy oyster populations. One mechanism by which oysters could potentially increase their fitness is through the composition of their microbiome, which is known to actively change based on environment and ontogeny. Studying the host-symbiont relationship between oysters and their microbial communities will provide insight into their capacity for rapid, intragenerational adaptation. With this ongoing project, we aim to catalog how oyster microbiomes change in response to repeated and simultaneous exposure to hypoxia and warming. This past summer we completed the first phase of the experiment, exposing eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) to different oxygen and temperature levels first at three months and then five months of age. Shell height and tissue mass were measured before and after second exposure, and then the oysters were dissected by tissue-type. We plan on performing both 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing and shotgun metagenomics in order to identify bacteria common to those oysters that experienced hypoxia and/or warming. Better understanding how oyster microbiomes respond to real, dynamic stressors will provide aquaculture scientists with new insight into how they can ensure the continued health of their oyster populations.