ArticleMicrobiome2020
Metabarcoding reveals distinct microbiotypes in the giant clam Tridacna maxima.
Article in Microbiome, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Host and Environment Shape the Giant Clam-Associated Photosymbiont Community.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Trophic niche partitioning in giant clams.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Microbiome of the Boring Giant Clam Provides Insights Into Holobiont Resilience Under Coral Reef Environmental Stress.Environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Microbial Distortion? Impacts of Delayed Preservation on Microbiome Diversity and Composition in a Marine Invertebrate.MicrobiologyOpen · 2025Article
- Horizontal transmission of symbiotic bacteria and host selective sweep in the giant clamISME communications · 2025Article
- Ecosystem transplant from a healthy reef boosts coral health at a degraded reef.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Unveiling the suitable habitats and future conservation strategies ofEcology and evolution · 2024Article
- Microbiome profile of the Antarctic clam Laternula elliptica.Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology] · 2024Article
- Feed Regime Slightly Modifies the Bacterial but Not the Fungal Communities in the Intestinal Mucosal Microbiota of Cobia Fish (Microorganisms · 2023Article
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- Microbial signature profiles ofPeerJ · 2023Article
- Range expansion and first observation ofEcology and evolution · 2022Article
- Full-Length Transcriptome Maps of Reef-Building Coral Illuminate the Molecular Basis of Calcification, Symbiosis, and Circadian Genes.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Conserving threatened species during rapid environmental change: using biological responses to inform management strategies of giant clams.Conservation physiology · 2021Article
- Article
- Dimethylsulfoniopropionate concentration in coral reef invertebrates varies according to species assemblages.Scientific reports · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 5 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGiant clams and scleractinian (reef-building) corals are keystone species of coral reef ecosystems. The basis of their ecological success is a complex and fine-tuned symbiotic relationship with microbes. While the effect of environmental change on the composition of the coral microbiome has been heavily studied, we know very little about the composition and sensitivity of the microbiome associated with clams. Here, we explore the influence of increasing temperature on the microbial community (bacteria and dinoflagellates from the family Symbiodiniaceae) harbored by giant clams, maintained either in isolation or exposed to other reef species. We created artificial benthic assemblages using two coral species (Pocillopora damicornis and Acropora cytherea) and one giant clam species (Tridacna maxima) and studied the microbial community in the latter using metagenomics.
resultsOur results led to three major conclusions. First, the health status of giant clams depended on the composition of the benthic species assemblages. Second, we discovered distinct microbiotypes in the studied T. maxima population, one of which was disproportionately dominated by Vibrionaceae and directly linked to clam mortality. Third, neither the increase in water temperature nor the composition of the benthic assemblage had a significant effect on the composition of the Symbiodiniaceae and bacterial communities of T. maxima.
conclusionsAltogether, our results suggest that at least three microbiotypes naturally exist in the studied clam populations, regardless of water temperature. These microbiotypes plausibly provide similar functions to the clam host via alternate molecular pathways as well as microbiotype-specific functions. This redundancy in functions among microbiotypes together with their specificities provides hope that giant clam populations can tolerate some levels of environmental variation such as increased temperature. Importantly, the composition of the benthic assemblage could make clams susceptible to infections by Vibrionaceae, especially when water temperature increases. Video abstract.
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