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#Hybrid animals are ideal for studying how genetics influences a host's #microbiome. But most studies have been done on lab-reared animals. We (hold your breath) went to the bottom of the ocean instead to study #deepsea mussels from a hybrid zone. https://tinyurl.com/y2dd9afa 1/
We compared the #symbionts of 30 hybrid and parental individuals of 𝘉𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘺𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘴, using high resolution #metagenomics, such as single-nucleotide polymorphisms and gene abundance signals. 2/
Our results revealed no difference between symbionts of hybrid and parental mussels – not even in a single gene! 3/
Instead, geographic location explained 45 % of symbiont genetic variation along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge 4/
