The microbiome of the California sea hare

The California sea hare, or Aplysia californica, is a well-studied model organism used in neurobiology and neuroscience. Despite having deep knowledge of Aplysia’s physiology, anatomy, ethology, and biology in general little is known about its microbiome. The objective of the project, in collaboration with the National Resource for Aplysia at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, would be to explore for the first time the prokaryotic and microeukaryotic communities associated with this model organism using a genomic, metabarcoding approach. These data will allow exploration of how the microbiome influences behavior, aging and many other characteristics associated with the basic biology of these animals.