Bacterial dynamics within the mucus, tissue and skeleton of the coral Porites lutea during different seasons

Investigation of the response of coral microbial communities to seasonal ecological environment at the microscale will advance our understanding of the relationship between coral-associated bacteria community and coral health. In this study, we examined bacteria community composition from mucus, tis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2014-12, Vol.4 (1), p.7320-7320, Article 7320
Main Authors: Li, Jie, Chen, Qi, Long, Li-Juan, Dong, Jun-De, Yang, Jian, Zhang, Si
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Anthozoa - microbiology
Anthozoa - physiology
Bacteria - genetics
Bacteria - isolation & purification
Community composition
Corals
Dissolved oxygen
Ecosystem
Microbiota - physiology
Mucus
Mucus - microbiology
Rainfall
rRNA 16S
Seasons
Seawater
Seawater - microbiology
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Summary:Investigation of the response of coral microbial communities to seasonal ecological environment at the microscale will advance our understanding of the relationship between coral-associated bacteria community and coral health. In this study, we examined bacteria community composition from mucus, tissue and skeleton of Porites lutea and surrounding seawater every three months for 1 year on Luhuitou fringing reef. The bacterial communities were analyzed using pyrosequencing of the V1-V2 region of the 16S rRNA gene, which demonstrated diverse bacterial consortium profiles in corals. The bacterial communities in all three coral compartments studied were significantly different from the surrounding seawater. Moreover, they had a much more dynamic seasonal response compared to the seawater communities. The bacterial communities in all three coral compartments collected in each seasonal sample tended to cluster together. Analysis of the relationship between bacterial assemblages and the environmental parameters showed that the bacterial community correlated to dissolved oxygen and rainfall significantly at our study site. This study highlights a dynamic relationship between the high complexity of coral associated bacterial community and seasonally varying ecosystem parameters.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep07320