Laboratory maintained and wild populations of Hydra differ in their microbiota

Very often, the microbial composition of lab-maintained model organisms is significantly different compared to their natural counterparts. Controlled environment in the lab versus dynamic conditions in the wild could be one of the reasons for such differences. Considering the impact of microbes on development, immunology, ecology, evolution, etc., it is very important to explore the microbial structure of the host from both lab and wild populations. In this study we have explored the microbiota of H. vulgaris collected from two localities in India as well as lab-maintained populations, using Ion torrent PGM. All samples were dominated by phylum Proteobacteria; however, at a deeper taxonomic level, microbial structure of the samples collected from different localities showed notable differences among them and the lab-maintained population as well. Knowledge of such variation in microbiota of the host could aid in our understanding of host–microbiota interaction.