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Ontogenetic Variation In Epibiont Community Structure In The Deep-Sea Yeti Crab, Kiwa Hirsuta: Convergence Among Crustaceans, Shana Goffredi, Ann Gregory, William Jones, Norma Morella, Reid Sakamoto

Shana Goffredi

Recent investigations have demonstrated that unusually 'hairy' yeti crabs within the family Kiwaidae associate with two predominant filamentous bacterial families, the Epsilon and Gammaproteobacteria. These analyses, however, were based on samples collected from a single body region, the setae of pereopods. To more thoroughly investigate the microbiome associated with Kiwa puravida, a yeti crab species from Costa Rica, we utilized barcoded 16S rRNA amplicon pyrosequencing, as well as microscopy and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Results indicate that, indeed, the bacterial community on the pereopods is far less diverse than on the rest of the body (Shannon indices ranged …