Meeting Abstract
The American lobster, Homarus americanus is one of the most important commercial fisheries in New England. A recent increase of shell disease in H. americanus populations has generated a great deal of concern regarding its causes and spread. Shell disease is thought to be caused by a polymicrobial infection, however an etiological agent has not yet been identified. This project investigates the microbial communities associated with lesions of diseased lobsters and how these communities change temporally and spatially. Microbial samples were collected from lobsters at the site of a new shell disease location, as well as at 0.5, 1, and 1.5 cm away from the site. The16S rRNA gene was amplified and sequenced using high throughput sequencing. The sequences were analyzed with QIIME. The results show that microbial communities on diseased lobster shells are significantly different spatially, but not temporally. The diversity of microbes was lowest at the site of shell disease, and increased with distance from the site. This work elucidates the microbial community composition of shell disease and tracks this community throughout the progression of disease.
