Ontogenetic variation in epibiont community structure in the deep‐sea yeti crab, Kiwa puravida: convergence among crustaceans

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 from 1.30–2.02 and 2.22–2.66, respectively). Similarly, the bacterial communities associated with juveniles and adults were more complex than previously recognized, with as many as 46 bacterial families represented. Ontogenetic differences in the microbial community, from egg to juvenile to adult, included a dramatic under‐representation of the Helicobacteraceae and higher abundances of both Thiotrichaceae and Methylococcaceae for the eggs, which paralleled patterns observed in another bacteria–crustacean symbiosis. The degree to which abiotic and biotic feedbacks influence the bacterial community on the crabs is still not known, but predictions suggest that both the local environment and host‐derived factors influence the establishment and maintenance of microbes associated with the surfaces of aquatic animals.