Something smells fishy…

The skin of marine animals is covered in a diverse range of microbial communities. These microbiomes are fundamental to the fitness of the host as they regulate metabolism/ immune system, enhance nutrients absorption and protect against pathogens. Previously, the composition and diversity of these microbiomes have been largely neglected.Chiarello et al. (2018) investigated the diversity, variability and their drivers of these microbiomes of several coral reef fish species using metabarcoding of 16S rRNA V4 region. The findings of this paper allow diverse predictions about potential anthropogenic impacts on coral reef inhabitants.
Prokaryotic communities on the skin of individuals were highly diverse with the composition of microbiomes varying greatly Intra- and inter-individually. The community variation across species was dependent on the genetic similarities of the species of the host and the differences in its ecological traits. It was also highlighted that the differences between species are the variances in immune systems.The results of this study were limited by the lack of specific primers available to explore the archaeal diversity. Despite this it the paper managed to highlight that the microbiome diversity of coral reef fish skin was much higher than previously realised this exemplified that a loss of micro-organism diversity would also negatively impact microbial communities. Furthermore, anthropogenic impacts will lead to a loss of untapped potential of host-associated organisms for medical purposes.

Chiarello, M., Auguet, J., Bettarel, Y., Bouvier, C., Claverie, T., Graham, N., Rieuvilleneuve, F., Sucré, E., Bouvier, T. and Villéger, S. (2018). Skin microbiome of coral reef fish is highly variable and driven by host phylogeny and diet. Microbiome