mussels

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.

In June 2022, Hannah Collins and Tyler Griffin from the Ward Environmental Physiology Lab went to Buffalo, NY, to perform research on the gut microbiomes of freshwater quagga mussels (Dreissena bugensis). The three-day trip involved collecting these invasive mussels from Lake Erie with the help of Brian Haas at the Buffalo State Great Lakes Center field station. The goal of the project, funded by an NSF Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation grant, was to sample mussel gut microbes before and after defecation with the goal of distinguishing between microbes that live inside the mussels and other microbes that were simply passing through. This work serves as preliminary research for the larger goal of investigating the feasibility of using freshwater mussels to remove microplastics from freshwater systems and co-concentration them with plastic-degrading bacteria.

Marine Sciences

New multi-study analysis of gut microbiome data from blue mussels

Sampling freshwater mussel gut microbiomes in the Great Lakes