With the advent of more comprehensive research into the microbiome and interactions between animals and their microbiota, new solutions can be applied to address conservation challenges such as husbandry and medical care of captive animals. Although studies on epizoic algae are relatively rare, and the function and role of those mainly photosynthetic organisms in the animal microbiome is not well understood, recent surveys on epizoic diatoms show that some of them exhibit traits of obligate epibionts. This study explores diatom communities on captive–born manatees from the Africarium in Wroclaw, Poland. Light and scanning electron microscopy analyses revealed that skin of all animals sampled was dominated by apochlorotic Tursiocola cf. ziemanii, an epizoic species described recently from Florida manatees, that reached 99,9% of the total diatom abundance. Despite using media with a wide range of salinity (0–34), the isolated Tursiocola cells did not grow, whereas the normally pigmented Planothidium sp., that was only occasionally found on the animal substratum, survived in all culture media tested. Our observations provide direct evidence that manatee–associated Tursiocola endure the dramatic salinity changes that occur regularly during their host life cycle, and can thrive in an artificial captive setting, if the manatee substratum is available. The impact of practices and routines used by the Africarium on manatee–associated diatoms, as well as ultrastructure of areolae in Tursiocola, are briefly discussed.

中文翻译：

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为了更好，更坏：与海牛相关的Tursiocola（Bacillariophyta）忠实于主人。

随着对微生物组以及动物及其微生物群之间相互作用的更全面研究的出现，可以将新的解决方案应用于应对保护挑战，例如圈养和圈养动物的医疗保健。尽管对偶生藻类的研究相对较少，并且对那些主要为光合生物的动物微生物组的功能和作用还没有很好的了解，但最近对偶生硅藻的调查显示，其中一些具有专性的b生动物性状。这项研究探索了波兰弗罗茨瓦夫Africarium圈养的海牛上的硅藻群落。光和扫描电子显微镜分析表明，所有采样动物的皮肤均由脱氯性Tursiocola cf控制。西曼尼，一种最近从佛罗里达海牛身上发现的流行物种，达到了硅藻总含量的99.9％。尽管使用了多种盐度的培养基（0–34），但分离的Tursiocola细胞并未生长，而通常仅在动物基质上发现的正常色素的Planothidium sp。在所有测试的培养基中均能存活。我们的观察提供了直接的证据，表明与海牛相关的Tursiocola忍受着在其宿主生命周期中定期发生的剧烈盐度变化，并且如果有海牛基质，则可以在人工圈养下繁盛。非洲人使用的做法和惯例对海牛相关硅藻的影响以及Tursiocola中乳晕的超微结构简要讨论。