Preliminary analysis of bacterial diversity associated with the Porites coral from the Arabian sea

Abstract

It is widely reported that coral reefs are suffering degradation from a combination of stresses. We have previously reported the use of genomic tools in the study of environmental impact assessment and hypothesize that monitoring the bacterial diversity associated with a coral would indicate changes in its health before visible damage occurs. This study analyzes the bacterial diversity associated with Porites coral collected from two sites in the Arabian Sea using culture independent techniques. Two clone libraries were constructed from the16S rDNA amplicons and selected individual clones were partially sequenced. Retrieved sequences were identified by BLAST analysis and indicate the presence of unidentified bacteria. Diversity index was calculated using Shannon-Wiener index. The bacterial diversity associated with coral sample 1 gives the index of species diversity, H 1 as 1.6287, divergence from eqiprobability as 45.708% and the evenness of the sample as 54.291. For coral sample 2, the values obtained were, H 1 as 1.97, divergence from eqiprobability as 15.11% and the evenness of the sample as 84.88. Sequences representing bacteria related to agricultural or industrial pollution and pathogenesis were also found. Coral samples collected near a lagoon area, showed a greater percentage of sequences representing bacteria related to human interventions, indicative of pollution.

Phenotype-Specific Bacterial Communities in the Cold-Water Coral Lophelia pertusa (Scleractinia) and Their Implications for the Coral's Nutrition, Health, and Distribution

“…Sequence C07_CR01 (Chryseobacterium sp.) was phylogenetically related to sequence DQ188008, obtained from the shallow-water scleractinian Porites species (Fungiina, Poritidae) from the Arabian Sea (30). There was no overlap between C07_CR01 and DQ188008, but DQ188008 was 96% similar to Chryseobacterium hispanicum AM159183, which in turn showed 100% similarity to C07_ CR01.…”

Investigation of bacteria with polyketide synthase genes and antimicrobial activity isolated from South China Sea sponges

“…Bacillus is well known to produce metabolites with antimicrobial, antifungal and cytotoxic properties. Although Bacillus is typically a terrestrial bacterium, it has also been isolated from marine organisms such as soft corals (Kapley et al. 2007), and marine sponges (Prokofeva et al.…”

Culture dependent diversity and phylogeny of thermophilic bacilli from a natural hot spring reservoir in the Gir Forest, Gujarat (India)

“…A low value of the Shannon index indicates uneven species distribution in a particular habitat. Reportedly, the Shannon index was used to explain the microbial diversity of the Arabian Sea (Kapley et al, 2007) and the Southern West of the China (Chen et al, 2012). More recently, Yousuf et al (2012) used the Simpson and the Shannon indices, together with Chao and ACE richness estimators to explore microbial diversity and richness.…”