Bacterial Community Shifts during Polyp Bail-Out Induction in Pocillopora Corals

Abstract

Polyp bail-out represents both a stress response and an asexual reproductive strategy with significant implications for reshaping tropical coral reefs in response to global climate change. Although earlier studies have suggested that coral-associated microbiomes likely contribute to initiation of polyp bail-out in scleractinian corals, there have been no studies of coral microbiome shifts during polyp bail-out.

The Microbiome After Bail-out: Testing Individual Polyps from Pocillopora verrucosa as Models for Coral Microbiology Studies

“…As previously reported, polyp bail-out did not signi cantly alter the microbial community of the polyp when compared to the whole fragment 27 , even under high salinity stress. However, the lack of difference found in the 16S rRNA gene data immediately after bail-out does not ensure the lack of difference between the microbial communities, since there could still be remaining DNA from dead microbial members.…”

“…To overcome the limitations in culturing coral cells and to maintain a laboratory culture that preserves the overall tissue organization of corals, the use of isolated polyps has recently been proposed as a miniaturized model system for coral biology research 25,26 . The separation of live polyps occurs naturally by the process of polyp bail-out, in which acute stress causes the digestion of the coenosarc between the polyps, which can then detach from the colony's skeleton [26][27][28] .…”

“…These two factors, together, can reduce the variability in coral physiological studies and become a useful tool to test treatments and approaches for coral conservation projects. Even though coral polyps have been used to study the inoculation of coral pathogenic bacteria 25 , only one recent study analyzed the microbiome at the moment of coral bail-out 27 , not tracking the subsequent changes to the microbiome.…”