Bowen Lab
Northeastern University
Marine Science Center
430 Nahant Road
Nahant, MA
Host associated microbial communities
The ecology of bacteria that live in association with human and animal hosts is an area of reaseach that is receiving national attention. Microbes associated with humans, for example, have been implicated in a huge number of areas associated with human health. The Bowen lab is examining the host associated microbiomes of several commercially important or highly endangered organisms.
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Oyster reefs provide numerous ecosystem services including providing a physical substrate to support growth of other organisms, water filtration to remove excess phytoplankton resulting from nutrient enrichment, and increased carbon and nitrogen deposition to sediments where they can promote the microbially-mediated loss of nitrogen via denitrification. On the other hand, the incidence of food borne illness from consumption of raw oysters is increasing as more and more oysters are consumed, making them a potential public health hazard. We recently published a paper examining how oyster farming alters the structure of sediment microbial communities. you can read more about this work here.
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Further, we know from studies of humans that microbiomes play a critical role in organism health but we know much less about the role that the microbiome plays in the health of marine organisms such as the Eastern Oyster. Additional work in our lab is exploring the oyster microbiome, its susceptibility to perturbation by important global change drivers such as ocean acidification, and the role that the oyster microbiome plays in oyster health and disease.
Oyster dissection to examine differences in the oyster microbiome among mantle, gut, and shell tissues.
The American Lobster, Homarus americanus, supports a valuable commercial fishery in the Gulf of Maine, with landings totaling over half-billion dollars in 2014. While landings are at historic highs, the southern extent of this fishery has recently come under threat, with lobster shell disease being one potential driver. This disease occurs when bacteria consume the lobster cuticle resulting in deep lesions on infected lobsters. The recent increase in shell disease highlights the importance of understanding the ecological dynamics of the bacteria responsible for lobster shell disease. Initial investigation of the bacteria associated with lobster shell disease identified a few key members of the shell microbiome, but much more work is needed to understand the underlying causes and mechanism of spread for this disease. Working with Michael Tlusty at UMass Boston we recently published a paper exploring the bacteria associated with lobster shell disease to better understand how this disease moves across lobster shells and, ultimately, across populations in the wild. Read more about this study here.
The same lobster at two different time points illustrating the progression of lobster shell disease on juvenile lobsters. The lobsters are fed a diet that contains no pigments so that their shell remains white, making it easier to spot signs of disease.
Globally, populations of amphibians are on the decline due to a pathogenic fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). This pathogen acts on the skin of amphibians, primarily disrupting osmotic balance and likely leading to mortality. While Bd has a high mortality rate, many species possess, to varying degrees, resistance to Bd infection and this differential susceptibility may be due to amphibian-associated microorganisms. Microbial populations associated with the skin of amphibians can provide protection against Bd infection by producing anti-fungal metabolites, conferring resistance that supplements their own immune system. Understanding the interactions, both positive and negative, between microorganisms and their host is paramount to understanding disease progression and susceptibility. In a recently published study in collaboration with Doug Woodhams and Michael Tlusty at UMass Boston and with the New England Aquarium we show the important role that the fungal component of the microbiome plays in potentially combating Bd. Read more here.
Kemp’s ridley turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) are a critically endangered species of sea turtle that strand every fall from cold-stunning, or hypothermia, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. An average of half of these turtles per cold-stun event present with respiratory abnormalities during rehabilitation at the New England Aquarium (NEAQ). We are striving to understand how the respiratory bacterial and fungal communities play a role in the health of these animals. We are also interested in evaluating the gastrointestinal microbiome as an indicator of disease state. Understanding the effects of hospitalization and antibiotic therapy on the respiratory microbiome, as well as comparing results across different diagnostic approaches and body sites, may lead to the improvement in the medical management of sea turtles in rehabilitation and ultimately lead to greater success in re-establishing these critical endangered animals.
Kemps Ridley sea turtle that was rescued from the cold waters of New England and is being rehabilitated at NEAQ.
One of the poison arrow frogs used to study the role of the skin microbiome (both fungal and bacterial) in protection against fungal infections.
Papers associated with this work:
Kearns, P. J., S. Fischer, S. Fernández-Beaskoetxea, C. Gabor, J. Bosche, J. L. Bowen, and M. F. Tlusty, and D. Woodhams. 2017. Fighting fungi with fungi: the mycobiome contribution to emerging disease in amphibians. Frontiers in Microbiology 8: 2494.
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Kearns, P. J., J. L. Bowen, and M. F. Tlusty. 2017. The skin microbiome of cow-nose rays (Rhinoptera bonasus) in an aquarium touch-tank exhibit. ZooBiology 36: 226-230.
Tlusty, M. F., A. L. Rhyne, J. T. Szczebak, B. D. Bourque, J. L. Bowen, G. Burr, C. J. Barr, and L. Feinberg. 2017. A trans-disciplinary approach to the initial validation of a single cell protein as an alternative protein source for use in aquafeeds. PeerJ 5, e3170.
Feinman, S. G., Y. R. Farah, J. M. Bauer, and J. L. Bowen. 2017. The influence of oyster farming practice on sediment microbial communities. Estuaries and Coasts. Published online 8/16/2017. DOI 10.1007/s12237-017-0301-7
Feinman, S. G., A. Unzueta Martinez, J. L. Bowen, and M. F. Tlusty. 2017. Fine-scale transition to lower bacterial diversity and altered taxonomy precede shell disease in American lobster. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 124: 41-54.