Exploring microbiome engineering as a strategy for improved thermal tolerance in <i>Exaiptasia diaphana</i>

Dungan, Ashley M.; Hartman, Leon M.; Blackall, Linda L.; Oppen, Madeleine J. H. van

doi:10.1111/jam.15465

Cited by 18 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 110 publications

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“…Overall, these studies showed limited and short-term uptake of some of the inoculated bacteria, 20,21 or restructuring of the bacterial community composition following inoculation. 18,19 However, no study has demonstrated long-term uptake and temporal stability of the inoculated bacteria, although divergent microbiome communities were observed in coral juveniles 4 months after a single microbiome transplant from each of four different species of adult corals, including one adult coral that was conspecific to the larval recipients.…”

Section: Microbiome Manipulation As a Tool To Enhance Coral Climate R...mentioning

confidence: 85%

“…A recent study inoculated the coral model sea anemone Exaiptasia diaphana with either a consortium of bacterial strains with high ROS-scavenging abilities, a negative control that contained closely related bacterial strains with no ROS-scavenging abilities (to control for the effect of heterotrophic feeding), or a no-inoculum control. 21 The inoculated bacteria were lost from the E. diaphana host prior to heat stress application precluding any conclusions on their impact on bleaching resilience to be drawn.…”

Section: Microbiome Manipulation As a Tool To Enhance Coral Climate R...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, temporal stability of bacteria within the host microbiome should be studied over longer timescales (e.g. months and longer), as most previous experiments have tested a duration of 24 h, 20 5, 19 11 18 and 35 days, 21 except for one study testing over 4 months, 5 and over multiple generations.…”

Section: Using Stably Associated Bacteria For Long-term Benefitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Advancing coral microbiome manipulation to build long-term climate resilience

Doering

Maire²,

Oppen³

et al. 2023

Microbiol. Aust.

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Coral reefs house one-third of all marine species and are of high cultural and socioeconomic importance. However, coral reefs are under dire threat from climate change and other anthropogenic stressors. Climate change is causing coral bleaching, the breakdown of the symbiosis between the coral host and its algal symbionts, often resulting in coral mortality and the deterioration of these valuable ecosystems. While it is essential to counteract the root causes of climate change, it remains urgent to develop coral restoration and conservation methods that will buy time for coral reefs. The manipulation of the bacterial microbiome that is associated with corals has been suggested as one intervention to improve coral climate resilience. Early coral microbiome-manipulation studies, which are aimed at enhancing bleaching tolerance, have shown promising results, but the inoculated bacteria did generally not persist within the coral microbiome. Here, we highlight the importance of long-term incorporation of bacterial inocula into the microbiome of target corals, as repeated inoculations will be too costly and not feasible on large reef systems like the Great Barrier Reef. Therefore, coral microbiome-manipulation studies need to prioritise approaches that can provide sustained coral climate resilience.

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Section: Microbiome Manipulation As a Tool To Enhance Coral Climate R...mentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Microbiome Manipulation As a Tool To Enhance Coral Climate R...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Using Stably Associated Bacteria For Long-term Benefitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Advancing coral microbiome manipulation to build long-term climate resilience

Doering

Maire²,

Oppen³

et al. 2023

Microbiol. Aust.

Self Cite

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“…Despite its promising use as a medicine to boost coral health and ensure their persistence through severe heatwaves and acute stress in laboratory trials ( 18 , 19 , 23 ), the actual location of these BMCs within the coral tissues was uncertain. As a consequence, it was unclear whether these BMCs were coral symbionts, consistently found associated with the coral tissue, or if they were transiently associated with the coral mucus or even being used as food ( 69 ) .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Localization and symbiotic status of probiotics in the coral holobiont

Cardoso,

Hill,

Villela

et al. 2024

mSystems

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Corals establish symbiotic relationships with microorganisms, especially endosymbiotic photosynthetic algae. Although other microbes have been commonly detected in coral tissues, their identity and beneficial functions for their host are unclear. Here, we confirm the beneficial outcomes of the inoculation of bacteria selected as probiotics and use fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to define their localization in the coral Pocillopora damicornis . Our results show the first evidence of the inherent presence of Halomonas sp. and Cobetia sp. in native coral tissues, even before their inoculation. Furthermore, the relative enrichment of these coral tissue-associated bacteria through their inoculation in corals correlates with health improvements, such as increases in photosynthetic potential, and productivity. Our study suggests the symbiotic status of Halomonas sp. and Cobetia sp. in corals by indicating their localization within coral gastrodermis and epidermis and correlating their increased relative abundance through active inoculation with beneficial outcomes for the holobiont. This knowledge is crucial to facilitate the screening and application of probiotics that may not be transient members of the coral microbiome. IMPORTANCE Despite the promising results indicating the beneficial outcomes associated with the application of probiotics in corals and some scarce knowledge regarding the identity of bacterial cells found within the coral tissue, the correlation between these two aspects is still missing. This gap limits our understanding of the actual diversity of coral-associated bacteria and whether these symbionts are beneficial. Some researchers, for example, have been suggesting that probiotic screening should only focus on the very few known tissue-associated bacteria, such as Endozoicomonas sp., assuming that the currently tested probiotics are not tissue-associated. Here, we provide specific FISH probes for Halomonas sp. and Cobetia sp., expand our knowledge of the identity of coral-associated bacteria and confirm the probiotic status of the tested probiotics. The presence of these beneficial microorganisms for corals (BMCs) inside host tissues and gastric cavities also supports the notion that direct interactions with the host may underpin their probiotic role. This is a new breakthrough; these results argue against the possibility that the positive effects of BMCs are due to factors that are not related to a direct symbiotic interaction, for example, that the host simply feeds on inoculated bacteria or that the bacteria change the water quality.

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“…Furthermore, colonization by SS inocula may have been successful, but short‐lived. A recent study found that inoculation of the anemone E. diaphana with a cocktail of six potentially beneficial bacteria resulted in abundance increases for some, but not all, bacteria, which lasted for less than a week (Dungan, Hartman, et al, 2022). Therefore, in our study, potential transplant success may not have been detectable on Day 21.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the contribution of bacteria to the heat tolerance of experimentally evolved coral photosymbionts

Maire,

Deore,

Jameson

et al. 2023

Environmental Microbiology

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Coral reefs are extremely vulnerable to ocean warming, which triggers coral bleaching—the loss of endosymbiotic microalgae (Symbiodiniaceae) from coral tissues, often leading to death. To enhance coral climate resilience, the symbiont, Cladocopium proliferum was experimentally evolved for >10 years under elevated temperatures resulting in increased heat tolerance. Bacterial 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding showed the composition of intra‐ and extracellular bacterial communities of heat‐evolved strains was significantly different from that of wild‐type strains, suggesting bacteria responded to elevated temperatures, and may even play a role in C. proliferum thermal tolerance. To assess whether microbiome transplantation could enhance heat tolerance of the sensitive wild‐type C. proliferum, we transplanted bacterial communities from heat‐evolved to the wild‐type strain and subjected it to acute heat stress. Microbiome transplantation resulted in the incorporation of only 30 low‐abundance strains into the microbiome of wild‐type cultures, while the relative abundance of 14 pre‐existing strains doubled in inoculated versus uninoculated samples. Inoculation with either wild‐type or heat‐evolved bacterial communities boosted C. proliferum growth, although no difference in heat tolerance was observed between the two inoculation treatments. This study provides evidence that Symbiodiniaceae‐associated bacterial communities respond to heat selection and may contribute to coral adaptation to climate change.

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Exploring microbiome engineering as a strategy for improved thermal tolerance in Exaiptasia diaphana

Cited by 18 publications

References 110 publications

Advancing coral microbiome manipulation to build long-term climate resilience

Advancing coral microbiome manipulation to build long-term climate resilience

Localization and symbiotic status of probiotics in the coral holobiont

Assessing the contribution of bacteria to the heat tolerance of experimentally evolved coral photosymbionts

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