Jellyfish-associated bacterial communities and bacterioplankton in Indonesian Marine lakes

Abstract

In the present study, we compared communities of bacteria in two jellyfish species (the 'golden' jellyfish Mastigias cf.papua and the box jellyfish Tripedalia cf.cystophora) and water in three marine lakes located in the Berau region of northeastern Borneo, Indonesia. Jellyfish-associated bacterial communities were compositionally distinct and less diverse than bacterioplankton communities. Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Synechococcophycidae and Flavobacteriia were the most abundant classes in water. Jellyfish-associated bacterial communities were dominated by OTUs assigned to the Gammaproteobacteria (family Endozoicimonaceae), Mollicutes, Spirochaetes and Alphaproteobacteria (orders Kiloniellales and Rhodobacterales). Mollicutes were mainly restricted to Mastigias whereas Spirochaetes and the order Kiloniellales were most abundant in Tripedalia hosts. The most abundant OTU overall in jellyfish hosts was assigned to the family Endozoicimonaceae and was highly similar to organisms in Genbank obtained from various hosts including an octocoral, bivalve and fish species. Other abundant OTUs included an OTU assigned to the order Entomoplasmatales and mainly found in Mastigias hosts and OTUs assigned to the Spirochaetes and order Kiloniellales and mainly found in Tripedalia hosts. The low sequence similarity of the Entomoplasmatales OTU to sequences in Genbank suggests that it may be a novel lineage inhabiting Mastigias and possibly restricted to marine lakes.

Bacterial communities associated with scyphomedusae at Helgoland Roads

“…Fraune and Cooper (2010) described bacterial colonization during the early embryonic development of Hydra (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa). Cleary et al (2016) investigated bacterial community composition associated with the scyphozoan Mastigias cf. papuaetpisoni and box jellyfish Tripedalia cf.…”

“…There is always a discussion concerning the origin of the associated BC in cnidarians and other jellyfish species. With regard to the surrounding seawater, a number of studies examining both cnidarians and ctenophores showed that the composition of the jellyfish microbiota is generally highly distinct from the composition of communities present in ambient seawater (Daniels and Breitbart 2012; Hao et al 2015;Dinasquet et al 2012;Daley et al 2016;Cleary et al 2016;Cortés-Lara et al 2015;Viver et al 2017;Weiland-Bräuer et al 2015). Although we assume that this cannot be generalized, in our study, the BC associated with the zooplankton fraction also indicated a significant different structure (free-living and particle-attached) compared to BCs associated with two different scyphomedusa species (data not shown).…”

Endozoicomonas genomes reveal functional adaptation and plasticity in bacterial strains symbiotically associated with diverse marine hosts

“…for review14). These bacteria associate with a wide variety of marine hosts, including corals1516171819, and other cnidarians2021, sponges2223, gorgonians242526, molluscs2728, worms29, fish3031, and tunicates3233. Despite these associations with numerous hosts in oceans worldwide, the functional role of Endozoicomonas remains unclear.…”

Bacteria associated with jellyfish during bloom and post-bloom periods

“…Recent studies of bacteria colonizing crustacean surfaces in the marine pelagic environment, showed considerable dissimilarities with bacterial communities in the surrounding seawater [14–16]. Recently, associated bacteria were reported for gelatinous plankton such as appendicularians [17], ctenophores [18–21], and also cnidarian jellyfish [18,22–28]. Moreover, several studies investigated the role of microbes during jellyfish blooms, and demonstrated high bacterial growth, changes in bacterial community structure in the surroundings of live or decaying jellyfish, and subsequently consequences in altering trophic interactions with higher trophic levels and implications for the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles [29–37].…”

“…Cleary et al . [22] presented data on the bacterial community composition associated with scyphozoan Mastigias cf. papua etpisoni and box jellyfish Tripedalia cf.…”