High salinity selects for halotolerant gut microbiota in the mummichog Fundulus heteroclitus.

Abstract

Mummichogs ( Fundulus heteroclitus ) are euryhaline fish that maintain osmoregulation across a range of salinities, but how their gut microbiomes respond remains poorly understood. Using Illumina 16S amplicon and Oxford Nanopore full-length 16S sequencing, we show that salinity is associated with reproducible gut microbiome restructuring. While alpha diversity did not differ significantly between low-salinity (5 ppt) and high-salinity (50 ppt) groups, beta diversity revealed distinct shifts in microbial communities. Specifically, high-salinity microbiomes were dominated by halotolerant Vibrio and Ahrensia species while low-salinity microbiomes retained more taxonomically diverse communities. These findings suggest host-associated microbes may contribute to osmotic homeostasis under salinity stress.

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BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@article{bradberry2026high,
  title = {{High salinity selects for halotolerant gut microbiota in the mummichog Fundulus heteroclitus.}},
  author = {Reece Bradberry and Elyse Hutchinson and Carlie Edwards and James Wetzel and Austin Y Shull and Stuart Gordon},
  journal = {MicroPublication biology},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.17912/micropub.biology.002267},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42948380},
  note = {CC BY},
}

RIS

TY  - JOUR
TI  - High salinity selects for halotolerant gut microbiota in the mummichog Fundulus heteroclitus.
AU  - Reece Bradberry
AU  - Elyse Hutchinson
AU  - Carlie Edwards
AU  - James Wetzel
AU  - Austin Y Shull
AU  - Stuart Gordon
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/12
JO  - MicroPublication biology
DO  - 10.17912/micropub.biology.002267
UR  - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42948380
AB  - Mummichogs ( Fundulus heteroclitus ) are euryhaline fish that maintain osmoregulation across a range of salinities, but how their gut microbiomes respond remains poorly understood. Using Illumina 16S amplicon and Oxford Nanopore full-length 16S sequencing, we show that salinity is associated with reproducible gut microbiome restructuring. While alpha diversity did not differ significantly between low-salinity (5 ppt) and high-salinity (50 ppt) groups, beta diversity revealed distinct shifts in microbial communities. Specifically, high-salinity microbiomes were dominated by halotolerant Vibrio and Ahrensia species while low-salinity microbiomes retained more taxonomically diverse communities. These findings suggest host-associated microbes may contribute to osmotic homeostasis under salinity stress.
SN  - 2578-9430
ER  -

Abstract

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