DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Patterns, causes, and consequences of gut microbial community variation across fish

Drexel University, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

The consortium of microbes that live in and on an organism can strongly influence the host's condition and fitness. Fish are the most diverse vertebrate group, but little is known about their microbial constituents of fish or how they impact their ecology and evolution. To explore factors that shape fish microbial communities, this project investigates the variation in gut bacteria across fish using three major model systems: sticklebacks, guppies and Tanganyikan cichlids. This work aims to determine how fish gut microbial communities have shifted in response to alterations in diet, trophic level, and habitat, and to determine how fish adaptations (i.e., to different feeding ecologies) may feed back and affect the microbial communities within their environment. An experimental approach with sticklebacks and guppies will investigate the variability of gut microbes due to diet and habitat as well as the impact of fish ecology on bacterial communities in the environment. The work on cichlids will investigate broad scale patterns of gut microbial communities across multiple, related species that have diverse diets. This investigation will address the role of evolutionary history and diet in structuring microbial communities across wild fish populations, laying groundwork for future studies on their functional contributions to fish ecology. By enhancing the understanding of what constitutes a typical gut bacterial community of wild fish, this research will also provide insights into fish health and physiology. The PIs will train undergraduates, use next-generation sequencing technologies, and integrate data generated from this project in undergraduate coursework. They will also disseminate findings to the public through popular and peer-reviewed articles and presentations at scientific meetings.