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Major similarities in the bacterial communities associated with lesioned and healthy F ungiidae corals
Author(s) -
Apprill Amy,
Hughen Konrad,
Mincer Tracy
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.954
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1462-2920
pISSN - 1462-2912
DOI - 10.1111/1462-2920.12107
Subject(s) - biology , microbiology and biotechnology , ecology , evolutionary biology , computational biology
Summary Cultivation‐based studies have demonstrated that yellow‐band disease ( YBD ), a lesion‐producing ailment affecting diverse species of coral, is caused by a consortium of V ibrio spp. This study takes the first cultivation‐independent approach to examine the whole bacterial community associated with YBD ‐like lesioned corals. Two species of F ungiidae corals, C tenactis crassa and H erpolitha limax , displaying YBD ‐like lesions were examined across diverse reefs throughout the R ed S ea. Using a pyrosequencing approach targeting the V 1– V 3 regions of the SSU rRNA gene, no major differences in bacterial community composition or diversity were identified between healthy and lesioned corals of either species. Indicator species analysis did not find V ibrio significantly associated with the lesioned corals. However, operational taxonomic units belonging to the R uegeria genus of A lphaproteobacteria and NS 9 marine group of F lavobacteria were significantly associated with the lesioned corals. The most striking trend of this dataset was that reef location was found to be the most significant influence on the coral–bacterial community. It is possible that more pronounced lesion‐specific bacterial signatures might have been concealed by the strong influence of environmental conditions on coral–bacteria. Overall, this study demonstrates inconsistencies between cultivation‐independent and cultivation‐based studies regarding the role of specific bacteria in coral diseases.