Predictable Changes in Eelgrass Microbiomes with Increasing Wasting Disease Prevalence across 23° Latitude in the Northeastern Pacific
Deanna S. Beatty, Lillian R. Aoki, Brendan Rappazzo, Chelsea Bergman, Lia K. Domke, J. Emmett Duffy, Katie DuBois, Ginny L. Eckert, Carla P. Gomes, Olivia Graham, Leah Harper, C. Drew Harvell, Timothy L. Hawthorne, Margot Hessing‐Lewis, Kevin A. Hovel, Zachary L. Monteith, Ryan Mueller, Angeleen M. Olson, C. R. M. Prentice, Fiona Tomás, Bo Yang, John J. Stachowicz
Abstract
(wasting disease). We link bacterial members of phyllosphere tissues to the prevalence of wasting disease across the broadest geographic range to date for a marine plant microbiome-disease study (3,100 km). We identify Cellvibrionaceae, plant cell wall degraders, enriched (up to 61% relative abundance) within lesion tissue, which suggests this group may be playing important roles in disease progression. These findings suggest inclusion of microbiomes in marine disease studies will improve our ability to predict ecological outcomes of infection across variable landscapes spanning thousands of kilometers.