Freshwater Unionidae Mussel and Corbicula fluminea gut samples after ethanol preservation
Freshwater mussels are important indicators of the overall health of their environment but have suffered declines that have been attributed to factors such as habitat degradation, loss of the fish host, climate change, and excessive nutrient inputs. In this study we determine if ethanol-stored specimens of freshwater mussels could yield representative information about their gut microbiome, such that changes in the microbiome through time could potentially be determined from mussel museum collections. A short-term preservation experiment using the invasive clam, Corbicula fluminea, was used to validate ethanol as a method for bivalve microbiome storage, and the gut microbiomes of 10 native mussel species that had been preserved in ethanol for between 2-9 years was assessed.