Skip to main content
Fig. 9 | Microbiome

Fig. 9

From: Early life microbial exposures shape the Crassostrea gigas immune system for lifelong and intergenerational disease protection

Fig. 9

Microbiota-induced epigenetic memory supports lifelong and intergenerational immune protection in C. gigas. Schematic representation of the proposed successive events inducing enhanced immune competence in oysters following a microorganism exposure at early stages. Exposing the oyster to microorganism-enriched seawater (ME) increased the diversity and shifted the composition of the oyster microbiota. This change in microbiota during the sensitive window of early development increased the oyster immune competence (symbolized by pink dashed lines) compared to the immune system of control oysters (symbolized by blue dashed lines). Importantly, the enhanced immune system would be expected to exert a pressure on the microflora, resulting in a different bacterial composition in ME-exposed compared to control oysters. The bacterial composition also relies on the developmental stage, which is symbolized by different colors of the dashes. This crosstalk between microbiota and immune system may trigger a continuous reshaping of cellular signaling pathways in host cells which resulted in epigenetic imprinting. This epigenetic memory allowed for inheritance of the phenotype in the offspring of the ME-exposed oysters

Back to article page