Caption: Graphical abstract depicting that a multi-study analysis of raw 16S gut microbiome data collected from blue mussels revealed that depuration strongly influences the recovered microbial community.

Everybody poops, even mussels! And it turns out that whether a mussels has pooped matters a lot when you sample its gut microbiome. New research published in Environmental Microbiology by the Ward lab and lead author Tyler Griffin reveals that fecal egestion (or depuration) status of mussels is a critically important factor for determining the microbial community composition in the mussel gut. By performing a multistudy re-analysis of microbiome data from several projects conducted by the Ward lab over seven years, they were able to broaden the understanding of gut microbial dynamics of these foundational invertebrates in Long Island Sound. Link to the article.

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