Microbial education for marine invertebrate disease prevention in aquaculture

The holobiont theory expands the notion of individual multicellular organisms as a community composed of a host and all its associated microorganisms. This concept has been extensively studied in the field of aquaculture, where increasing evidence has highlighted the importance of the host associated microorganisms in species fitness. Here, we focus our review on mollusc and crustacean species in which microbiota dysbiosis has recently been described in the context of various diseases, resulting in significant economic losses. Influencing the holobiont structure through the use of probiotics is a potential strategy that could improve the fitness or the robustness of cultivated species. We discuss here the possibility of developing microbiome targeted prophylactic approaches by promoting (1) methods to identify host microbial community that fosters good health status and (2) early life microbial education to favour long-term resistance to stress or disease. This review aims to inform the aquaculture industry about potential strategies in rearing practices to mitigate diseases and economic losses. Microbial education during the early life stages enhances the robustness of cultivated species and favour a long term disease resistance. image