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. 2017 Mar 31:7:45362.
doi: 10.1038/srep45362.

Stable mucus-associated bacterial communities in bleached and healthy corals of Porites lobata from the Arabian Seas

Ghaida Hadaidi  1 , Till Röthig  1 , Lauren K Yum  1 , Maren Ziegler  1 , Chatchanit Arif  1 , Cornelia Roder  1 , John Burt  2 , Christian R Voolstra  1
Affiliations

Stable mucus-associated bacterial communities in bleached and healthy corals of Porites lobata from the Arabian Seas

Ghaida Hadaidi et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Coral reefs are subject to coral bleaching manifested by the loss of endosymbiotic algae from coral host tissue. Besides algae, corals associate with bacteria. In particular, bacteria residing in the surface mucus layer are thought to mediate coral health, but their role in coral bleaching is unknown. We collected mucus from bleached and healthy Porites lobata colonies in the Persian/Arabian Gulf (PAG) and the Red Sea (RS) to investigate bacterial microbiome composition using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. We found that bacterial community structure was notably similar in bleached and healthy corals, and the most abundant bacterial taxa were identical. However, fine-scale differences in bacterial community composition between the PAG and RS were present and aligned with predicted differences in sulfur- and nitrogen-cycling processes. Based on our data, we argue that bleached corals benefit from the stable composition of mucus bacteria that resemble their healthy coral counterparts and presumably provide a conserved suite of protective functions, but monitoring of post-bleaching survival is needed to further confirm this assumption. Conversely, fine-scale site-specific differences highlight flexibility of the bacterial microbiome that may underlie adjustment to local environmental conditions and contribute to the widespread success of Porites lobata.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Bacterial community composition of mucus from bleached and healthy coral colonies of P. lobata from the Persian/Arabian Gulf (PAG) and the Red Sea (RS).
Depicted is a taxonomy stacked column plot on the phylogenetic level of family. Each color represents one of the 27 most abundant families. Remaining taxa are grouped under category ‘others’. Samples are ordered by site, reef, and health-state. Values displayed as means of n = 5 for corals and n = 1 for water samples, B: Bleached; H: Healthy, PAG reef1: Saadiyat; PAG reef 2: Ras Ghanada; RS reef1: Shib Nazar; RS reef 2: Al Fahal; RS reef3: Inner Fsar.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Bacterial community composition from coral mucus of bleached and healthy Porites lobata colonies from the Persian/Arabian Gulf (PAG) and the Red Sea (RS).
Principal coordinate analysis based on Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) abundance (sequence counts) shows a partitioning of mucus microbiomes by region, but not by health state. Ellipses denote 95% confidence intervals per group.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Taxonomy-based functional profiling of bacterial communities associated with mucus from P. lobata from the Persian/Arabian Gulf and Red Sea.
The heatmap displays putative changes in bacterial community function. Changes are displayed on a relative scale with enrichment in red and depletion in blue. Rightmost column indicates sample names and health status (B: Bleached, H: Healthy).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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