Meeting Abstract
Every animal on Earth is associated with a diverse community of bacteria (their microbiome). Recent research has suggested that microbiomes are important and in some cases essential partners for the development, health, and longevity of their animal host. Despite a few well documented examples of the benefits to animals from the associated bacteria, the functions and potential importance of the microbiome for most species, particularly marine organisms, remain little studied. Here we will present research aimed to characterize some functional interactions of the microbiome in the development and abiotic stress tolerance for an estuarine sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis. Using a combination of antibiotic treatments and single-bacteria inoculations, our results show significant effects of bacteria on the timing of development as well as the tolerance to two abiotic stressors, temperature and salinity. Furthermore, exposing anemones to live cells or cell-free supernatant from 24 species of common estuarine bacteria (e.g., Vibrio) and known human pathogens (e.g., Pseudomonas) revealed substantial variation in how bacteria influence the life cycle of this cnidarian. We will place these results in the context of previous data on the variation in the microbial community of Nematostella over development and in different populations to connect microbial variation with cnidarian ecology. Our continued research will further determine the role for bacteria in this species to identify how microbes may facilitate, or limit, the health and survival of its host in the dynamic natural environment.
