Highly Heterogeneous Bacterial Communities Associated with the South China Sea Reef Corals Porites lutea, Galaxea fascicularis and Acropora millepora

Abstract

Coral harbor diverse and specific bacteria play significant roles in coral holobiont function. Bacteria associated with three of the common and phylogenetically divergent reef-building corals in the South China Sea, Porites lutea, Galaxea fascicularis and Acropora millepora, were investigated using 454 barcoded-pyrosequencing. Three colonies of each species were sampled, and 16S rRNA gene libraries were constructed individually. Analysis of pyrosequencing libraries showed that bacterial communities associated with the three coral species were more diverse than previous estimates based on corals from the Caribbean Sea, Indo-Pacific reefs and the Red Sea. Three candidate phyla, including BRC1, OD1 and SR1, were found for the first time in corals. Bacterial communities were separated into three groups: P. lutea and G. fascicular, A. millepora and seawater. P. lutea and G. fascicular displayed more similar bacterial communities, and bacterial communities associated with A. millepora differed from the other two coral species. The three coral species shared only 22 OTUs, which were distributed in Alphaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria and an unclassified bacterial group. The composition of bacterial communities within each colony of each coral species also showed variation. The relatively small common and large specific bacterial communities in these corals implies that bacterial associations may be structured by multiple factors at different scales and that corals may associate with microbes in terms of similar function, rather than identical species.

Upwelling as the major source of nitrogen for shallow and deep reef‐building corals across an oceanic atoll system

“…Because symbionts, rather than the host, preferentially use nitrogen derived from nitrogen fixation (Lesser et al, ), the lower δ 15 N values of shallow G. fascicularis symbionts could be due to a small proportion of nitrogen derived from nitrogen‐fixing bacteria (Rädecker, Pogoreutz, Voolstra, Wiedenmann, & Wild, ). Further investigation into the potential role of nitrogen‐fixing bacteria and its association with symbionts of G. fascicularis is required (Li et al, ). However, based on the δ 15 N values from the Maldives, the potential input of nitrogen derived from nitrogen fixation would be minimal.…”

“…Further investigation into the potential role of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and its association with symbionts of G. fascicularis is required (Li et al, 2013). However, based on the δ 15 N values from Lesser et al, 2007).…”

Microbiome structure of the fungid coral Ctenactis echinata aligns with environmental differences

“…Differences in microbial communities across coral species are assumed to be due to different corals associating with different microbes of similar function rather than phylogenetic affiliation (Li et al . ; Kelly et al . ).…”

“…And even though intracolonial variation has been documented (Li et al . ), bacterial assemblages associated with corals are well structured with distinct operational taxonomic units (OTU) frequently being highly abundant (Rohwer et al . ; Bayer et al .…”

Characterization of bacterial communities associated with seasonal water masses from Tongyoung in South Sea of Korea

“…For example, the development of high-throughput pyrosequencing technology allows for the detection of rare taxa which serve as a reservoir of functional diversity and potentially becoming dominant against environmental conditions. This sequencing technology has been employed to investigate the genetic diversity, community composition, relative abundance, and distribution of microbes in the ocean water masses Li et al 2013;Mckew et al 2012;Marrow et al 2012). …”