Low-abundance taxa drive host microbiome response to temperature stress
In heat-stressed sea anemones, a small set of rare bacteria shifts before the host does, making them early-warning indicators.
Update (2026): now in press at Nature Communications.
A new paper, led by my collaborator Kaden Muffett with the Sogin lab, on thermal stress in the sea anemone Exaiptasia diaphana, the laboratory model for coral bleaching.
The key finding: a small set of conserved, low-abundance bacteria declines before the anemones themselves do. Since Exaiptasia is already used as an indicator of how corals will fare, these bacteria are, in effect, indicators of the indicator species.
My contribution was data analysis and systematic image analysis of how the anemones grew and reproduced under chronic heat stress.
Muffett, K. M., Williams, S., MacVittie, S., Schwiesow, M. J. W., Mendoza, Su. A., Mendoza, Sa. A., Hatch-West, H., Sogin, E. M. Nature Communications, in press (2026).