Composition and Functional Diversity of Epiphytic Bacterial and Fungal Communities on Marine Macrophytes in an Intertidal Zone

Abstract

Marine macrophytes (seagrasses and macroalgae) and their epiphytic microorganisms play an important role in the ecological and biochemical processes of coastal oceans. However, simultaneous comparative studies on the biodiversity and functions of epiphytic bacteria and fungi associated with marine macrophytes have not been conducted. In this study, high-throughput sequencing technology was used to describe the epiphytic bacterial and fungal communities of 11 common macroalgae and 2 seagrasses from an intertidal zone of northern China and compare them with seawater communities. The results showed that Proteobacteria and Bacteroidota were the dominant bacterial phyla in marine macrophytes, whereas Ascomycota, Chytridiomycota, and Basidiomycota were the dominant fungal phyla. The alpha diversity of the bacterial and fungal communities in seagrasses was the highest of all macrophyte samples. This may have been related to their ability to recruit microorganisms from multiple sources. Host phylogeny may influence bacterial community structure, and geographical differences may influence fungal community structure. The FAPROTAX data indicated that C metabolic microbes were enriched in marine macrophytes, while the FUNGuild data indicated that undefined saprotroph, which participated in organic matter degradation, were also enriched in marine macrophytes. These findings provide a theoretical basis regarding the epiphytic microorganisms of macrophytes and may offer new insights to support the improved ecological restoration of seagrass and macroalgae beds.

Differences in density: taxonomic but not functional diversity in seaweed microbiomes affected by an earthquake

“…Our finding that microbial communities associated with both the substrate and surrounding seawater were distinct from kelp microbiomes aligns with observations from other studies on macroalgae (11,37). Many of the core ASVs associated with D. antarctica belong to groups previously known to have macroalgal associations, such as Granulosicoccus and Leucothrix (7,8,38). Further examination of core microbial functions associated with D. antarctica revealed enrichment of heterotrophic bacteria in all populations.…”

Environmental factors and stochasticity affect the fungal community structures in the water and sediments of Hulun Lake, China

“…Kagami et al ( 2014 ) found that Chytridiomycota play an important role in water bodies as they mainly feed on dead aquatic plants, but are grazed upon by zooplankton (Kagami et al, 2014 ). Fungi that live in different habitats vary as they adapt to the different conditions, but all play important ecological roles (Bärlocher & Boddy, 2016 ; Chen et al, 2022 ; Raja et al, 2008 ). Meanwhile, many unclassified fungi were also found in our study.…”

Effects of Water Loss Stress under Tidal Effects on the Epiphytic Bacterial Community of Sargassum thunbergii in the Intertidal Zone

“…Then, the eluent was filtered in a sterile environment with a vacuum suction filter, and the epiphytic bacteria were collected onto a 0.22 μm filter membrane. Then, the membrane was put into a sample tube and stored at −80°C ( 62 ). Finally, the samples were placed on dry ice and sent to BioMarker Technologies (Beijing, China) for sequencing.…”