Publication Date
Fall 11-23-2020
School
School of Health Sciences
Major
Biology: Biomedical Sciences
Keywords
Crayfish, microbiome, branchiobdellidan
Disciplines
Bacteria | Biology | Microbiology
Recommended Citation
Hoverson, John, "A Microbiome Analysis of the Relationship Among Crayfish Ectosymbionts and Their Environment" (2020). Senior Honors Theses. 1020.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/honors/1020
Abstract
The purpose of this project was to determine if there are differences present between the α-diversities of the crayfish microbiome and its surrounding water and sediment. Furthermore, this project sought to discover if these differences hold when microbiomes are evaluated between crayfish of first and second stream orders. Finally, this project sought to determine if the presence of branchiobdellidan ectosymbionts on the crayfish caused further differences in the crayfish microbiome. While the hypothesized patterns between crayfish, ectosymbionts, and stream order were not found to exist, a significantly different microbiome was observed between water, sediment, and crayfish, and the α-diversity of the crayfish microbiome more closely resembled that of the sediment when higher levels of ectosymbionts were present on the crayfish.
