Luna van der Loos from Ghent University in Belgium presented at the London Calling 2022 conference on “Salinity structures the microbiome of the green seaweed Ulva.” van der Loos noted that they are fairly common and rely on their bacterial partners. This interaction is key but highly variable. van der Loos hypothesized that the interaction between the Ulva host and their microbiome that there are deterministic influences. The Baltic Sea has more than fifteen species of Ulva and a variety of salinities. For this study, they collected 146 sample sites, 15 Ulva species, and 481 microbiome samples. They performed 16S rDNA PCRs and sequenced on the MinION Mk1B. The main shift in microbiome was detected upon shifts in salinity. van der Loos concluded that the bacterial composition was strongly structured by salinity and host species, together explaining 34-91% of variation. The next steps will include metagenomic profiling and full sequencing of the Ulva genomes. I wonder if we can find and study green seaweed in samples around our state?
