Spatial heterogeneity of bacterial communities in the mucus of Montastraea annularis

Abstract

Corals are known to contain a diverse microbiota; however, few studies have explicitly addressed the spatial variability of bacterial communities across individual, healthy coral colonies. This study applied culture-based and culture-independent methods to examine the spatial heterogeneity in bacterial communities in the mucus of 3 healthy Montastraea annularis colonies from Looe Key Reef, Florida Keys. Automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA) results showed significant variability (up to 61% dissimilarity) in the composition of the total bacterial community at different locations only centimeters apart on individual coral colonies. Abundances of culturable Vibrio spp. determined by TCBS plating were highly variable across individual coral colonies, differing by up to 100-fold between different locations on the same colony. ARISA profiles indicated that intracolony variation rivaled intercolony differences in the composition of the culturable Vibrio community (i.e. types of culturable Vibrio spp. and their relative abundances). The high degree of spatial heterogeneity in coral-associated bacteria observed across individual colonies has implications for coral microbiology studies and coral restoration projects.KEY WORDS: Community profiling · ARISA · Bacteria · Coral · Spatial heterogeneity · Vibrio Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog Ser 426: [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] 2011 in bacterial community composition have been observed in bleached and diseased corals, with opportunists and pathogens present in these health-compromised states (Ritchie & Smith 1995, Kushmaro et al. 1997, Frias-Lopez et al. 2002, Pantos et al. 2003, Pantos & Bythell 2006, Ritchie 2006.The coral surface layers are extremely complex and dynamic (Ainsworth et al. 2006, Johnston & Rohwer 2007; however, few studies have examined spatial heterogeneity in coral-microbe associations across individual coral colonies. In diseased coral colonies, significant differences have been observed between the bacteria found in the healthy versus diseased portions of the colony (Frias-Lopez et al. 2002, Pantos et al. 2003, Breitbart et al. 2005, Gil-Agudelo et al. 2006, Pantos & Bythell 2006, Sekar et al. 2006. A limited number of studies have also demonstrated spatial variation in the bacterial community associated with healthy branching corals. Rohwer et al. (2002) demonstrated that bacterial communities were spatially structured on the branching coral Porites furcata, with specific bacterial taxa only found at the branch tips. In addition, bacterial community analysis in 6 replicate tissue samples from healthy Pocillopora damicornis colonies revealed spatial heterogeneity across some coral colonies (Bourne & Munn 2005), although some bacteria were uniformly found throughout an individual coral colony. Hansson et al. (2009) also demonstrated that the cold water coral Madrepora oculata exhibited spatial variation of bacterial communities within and among co...

Composition of Bacterial Communities Associated with Aurelia aurita Changes with Compartment, Life Stage, and Population

“…1, panel II). As reported previously for other animals, most interactions between the potential colonizers and A. aurita appear to occur at the mucosal surface, forming a barrier against ambient seawater (59)(60)(61). The majority of bacteria identified on polyps by FISH analysis are Gammaproteobacteria, Tables 1 and 2 for alpha and beta diversity analyses, respectively.…”

Potential role of viruses in white plague coral disease

“…We thus hypothesize that WP infection is only localized to the disease front, and that bleached and WP Diseased tissues are distinct in their viral composition. Bacteria associated with coral mucus have been shown to be spatially heterogeneous (Daniels et al, 2011), and here we demonstrate viral heterogeneity in a coral colony. Ultimately, we have shown that healthy corals have more abundant viral similarities to Herpesviridae, bleached corals possess more viral similarities to NCLDVs, such as Phycodnaviridae and Poxviridae, and diseased tissues contain an abundance of unique SCSDVs including members similar to Circoviridae and Nanoviridae, as well as their associated satellites; this novel SCSD viral group therefore may be responsible for WP infections in M. annularis.…”

The Microbiome of the Red Sea Coral Stylophora pistillata Is Dominated by Tissue-Associated Endozoicomonas Bacteria

“…The significance of the bacterial assemblage to the coral animal is not well understood, although coral bacteria have been characterized as species specific (1) and may have roles in nitrogen fixation, carbon fixation, antibiotic production, and other features that enable their health and functioning (1)(2)(3)(4)(5). A substantial component of the coral bacterial community resides within the mucus layer (6,7), and there is little understanding of which microbial partners are actually in residence within the coral tissues and potentially interacting with the coral. Here, we address this lack of knowledge by examining if and how a dominant group of bacteria frequently recovered in sequencing-based studies is located internally within the coral tissues of the Red Sea coral Stylophora pistillata.…”