Gross and microscopic pathology of lesions in Pocillopora spp. from the subtropical eastern Pacific

Rodríguez-Villalobos, Jenny Carolina; Rocha‐Olivares, Axayácatl; Work, Thierry M.; Calderón-Aguilera, Luis E.; Cáceres-Martı́nez, Jorge

doi:10.1016/j.jip.2014.04.007

Cited by 14 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…A viral infection killing endosymbionts leading to host cell death and clinical manifestations of SCTLD is a reasonable hypothesis to explain the large number of coral species affected by the disease (Aeby et al, 2019). Perhaps endosymbionts in the Caribbean are particularly susceptible to viral infections in contrast to those of corals in the Pacific where lesions compatible with SCLTD at the microscopic level have yet to be documented (Williams et al, 2010;Work and Aeby, 2011;Work et al, 2012Work et al, , 2015Rodríguez-Villalobos et al, 2014. More information on endosymbionts species-specific susceptibility to potential virus infections would be of interest.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Viral-Like Particles Are Associated With Endosymbiont Pathology in Florida Corals Affected by Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease

et al. 2021

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Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) was first documented in 2014 near the Port of Miami, Florida, and has since spread north and south along Florida’s Coral Reef, killing large numbers of more than 20 species of coral and leading to the functional extinction of at least one species, Dendrogyra cylindrus. SCTLD is assumed to be caused by bacteria based on presence of different molecular assemblages of bacteria in lesioned compared to apparently healthy tissues, its apparent spread among colonies, and cessation of spread of lesions in individual colonies treated with antibiotics. However, light microscopic examination of tissues of corals affected with SCTLD has not shown bacteria associated with tissue death. Rather, microscopy shows dead and dying coral cells and symbiotic dinoflagellates (endosymbionts) indicating a breakdown of host cell and endosymbiont symbiosis. It is unclear whether host cells die first leading to death of endosymbionts or vice versa. Based on microscopy, hypotheses as to possible causes of SCTLD include infectious agents not visible at the light microscopy level or toxicosis, perhaps originating from endosymbionts. To clarify this, we examined corals affected with SCTLD and apparently healthy corals using transmission electron microscopy. Endosymbionts in SCTLD-affected and apparently healthy corals consistently had varying degrees of pathology associated with elongated particles compatible in morphology with filamentous positive single-stranded RNA viruses of plants termed anisometric viral-like particles (AVLP). There was apparent progression from early to late replication of AVLP in the cytoplasm of endosymbionts adjacent to or at times within chloroplasts, with morphologic changes in chloroplasts consistent with those seen in plant cells infected by viruses. Coral host cell pathology appeared limited to massive proliferation and lysis of mucus cells. Based on these findings, we hypothesize that SCTLD is a viral disease of endosymbionts leading to coral host death. Efforts to confirm the presence of a virus associated with SCTLD through other means would be appropriate. These include showing the presence of a virus through molecular assays such as deep sequencing, attempts to grow this virus in the laboratory through culture of endosymbionts, localization of virus in tissue sections using immunohistochemistry or in situ hybridization, and experimental infection of known-virus-negative corals to replicate disease at the gross and microscopic level.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Viral-Like Particles Are Associated With Endosymbiont Pathology in Florida Corals Affected by Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease

et al. 2021

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“…). CAMAs have previously been visualized in all coral genera used in this study -Acropora, Platygyra, Pocillopora, and Porites[77,78,[98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107]. One consistent trend is that Endozoicomas, a widespread coral symbiont[108], reside in CAMAs.…”

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confidence: 54%

DNA from non-viable bacteria biases diversity estimates in the coralsAcropora loripesandPocillopora acuta

Dungan,

Geissler,

Williams

et al. 2023

Preprint

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BackgroundNucleic acid-based analytical methods have greatly expanded our understanding of global prokaryotic diversity, yet standard metabarcoding methods provide no information on the most fundamental physiological state of bacteria, viability. Scleractinian corals harbour a complex microbiome in which bacterial symbionts play critical roles in maintaining health and functioning of the holobiont. However, the coral holobiont contains both dead and living bacteria. The former can be the result of corals feeding on bacteria, rapid swings from hyper- to hypoxic conditions in the coral tissue, the presence of antimicrobial compounds in coral mucus, and an abundance of lytic bacteriophages.ResultsBy combining propidium monoazide (PMA) treatment with high-throughput sequencing on six coral species (Acropora loripes,A. millepora,A. kenti,Platygyra daedalea,Pocillopora acuta, andPorites lutea) we were able to obtain information on bacterial communities with little noise from non-viable microbial DNA. Metabarcoding of the 16S rRNA gene showed significantly higher community evenness (85%) and species diversity (31%) in untreated compared with PMA-treated tissue forA. loripesonly. While PMA-treated coral did not differ significantly from untreated samples in terms of observed number of ASVs, >30% of ASVs were identified in untreated samples only, suggesting that they originated from cell-free/non-viable DNA. Further, the bacterial community structure was significantly different between PMA-treated and untreated samples forA. loripesandP. acutaindicating that DNA from non-viable microbes can bias community composition data in coral species with low bacterial diversity.ConclusionsOur study is highly relevant to microbiome studies on coral and other host organisms as it delivers a solution to excluding non-viable DNA in a complex community. These results provide novel insights into the dynamic nature of host-associated microbiomes and underline the importance of applying versatile tools in the analysis of metabarcoding or next-generation sequencing data sets.

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“…(Sutherland et al, 2004), sin embargo, en el Pacífico Mexicano, no hay registros de corales impactados por enfermedades microbianas y se sugiere que las lesiones que se observan en Pocillopora sp. se deben a la decoloración y pérdida de tejido inducida por depredación y sobrecrecimiento de esponjas o algas (Rodríguez-Villalobos et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Adhesion ability to coral mucus of isolated bacteria from Pocillopora sp. and Porites panamensis of California Gulf southeast

González¹,

Juarez²,

Contreras³

et al. 2019

Cic. Ocea.

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El estudio de la microbiota en corales es de fundamental importancia para un mejor entendimiento de los procesos que determinan su asociación con el holobionte, sin embargo, aún se conoce poco acerca de los mecanismos básicos de dicha asociación. En esta investigación el objetivo fue aislar a partir de corales sin signos aparentes de enfermedad, las bacterias predominantes de la comunidad, determinar su capacidad de adhesión al moco producido por Pocillopora sp. e identificarlas molecularmente. Se recolectaron corales de los géneros Pocillopora sp. y P. panamensis, se cuantificó la población de cuatro grupos de microorganismos (expresados como Log de UFC g-1): bacterias mesófilas aerobias (4.7 - 6.4), bacterias ácido lácticas (˂1.0-5.8), bacterias del género Vibrio (˂1.0-4.5), así como hongos y levaduras (˂1.0-3.6). Se aislaron 156 cepas bacterianas del holobionte homogeneizado y se seleccionaron aquellas con mayor crecimiento a las 24 h para el ensayo de adhesión, que consistió en 25 cepas de Pocillopora sp. y 27 de Porites panamensis. El ensayo de adhesión al extracto crudo de moco de Pocillopora sp., marcado enzimáticamente con HRP mostró que el 82 % de las cepas se adhieren. Se extrajo ADN de todas las cepas, sin embargo, con los oligonucleótidos universales utilizados se obtuvieron productos de PCR solo de 32. Se identificaron molecularmente 14 de Pocillopora sp. y 18 de P. panamensis con base en la secuenciación y análisis del gen 16S DNAr. Las cepas identificadas correspondieron a 17 especies, donde predominó el género Bacillus, con 64 % en Pocillopora sp. y 44 % en P. panamensis. Las especies de bacterias que comparten estos corales son B. subtilis y Staphylococcus hominis. Se sugiere que las especies identificadas adherentes tienen la capacidad de colonizar el moco del coral, son comensales y potencialmente benéficas, debido a que fueron aisladas de corales aparentemente sanos. Adhesion ability to coral mucus of isolated bacteria from Pocillopora sp. and Porites panamensis of California Gulf southeast ABSTRACT. The study of coral microbiota is of fundamental importance for a better understanding of the processes that determine its association with the holobiont, however, little is known about the basic mechanisms of this association. In this research, the objective was to isolate from corals without apparent signs of disease, the predominant bacteria of the community, determine their ability to adhere to the mucus produced by Pocillopora sp. and identify them molecularly. Corals of the genera Pocillopora sp. and Porites panamensis were recollected, the population of four groups of microorganisms (expressed as Log of CFU g-1) was quantified. Results indicated aerobic mesophilic bacteria (4.7 - 6.4), lactic acid bacteria (˂1.0-5.8), bacteria of the Vibrio genus (˂ 1.0-4.5), as well as fungi and yeasts (˂1.0-3.6). 156 bacterial strains of the homogenized holobiont were isolated and those with the highest growth at 24 h were selected for the adhesion test, which consisted of 25 strains of Pocillopora sp. and 27 of P. panamensis. The adhesion test to the enzymatically labeled with HRP crude mucus extract of Pocillopora sp., showed that 82% of the strains adhere. DNA was extracted from all strains, however, with the universal oligonucleotides used, only 32 PCR products were obtained. 14 strains from Pocillopora sp. and 18 from P. panamensis were molecularly identified based on the sequencing and analysis of the 16S DNAr gene. The strains identified corresponded to 17 species, where the genus Bacillus predominated, with 64% in Pocillopora sp. and 44% in P. panamensis. The species of bacteria that share these corals are B. subtilis and Staphylococcus hominis. It is suggested that the identified adherent species have the ability to colonize coral mucus, are commensal and potentially beneficial, because they were isolated from apparently healthy corals.

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Gross and microscopic pathology of lesions in Pocillopora spp. from the subtropical eastern Pacific

Cited by 14 publications

References 45 publications

Viral-Like Particles Are Associated With Endosymbiont Pathology in Florida Corals Affected by Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease

Viral-Like Particles Are Associated With Endosymbiont Pathology in Florida Corals Affected by Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease

DNA from non-viable bacteria biases diversity estimates in the coralsAcropora loripesandPocillopora acuta

Adhesion ability to coral mucus of isolated bacteria from Pocillopora sp. and Porites panamensis of California Gulf southeast

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