Abstract
Increasing evidence confirms the crucial role bacteria and archaea play within the coral holobiont, that is, the coral host and its associated microbial community. The bacterial component constitutes a community of high diversity, which appears to change in structure in response to disease events. In this study, we highlight the limitation of 16S rRNA gene (16S rDNA) clone library sequencing as the sole method to comprehensively describe coral-associated communities. This limitation was addressed by combining a high-density 16S rRNA gene microarray with, clone library sequencing as a novel approach to study bacterial communities in healthy versus diseased corals. We determined an increase in diversity as well as a significant shift in community structure in Montastraea faveolata colonies displaying phenotypic signs of White Plague Disease type II (WPD-II). An accumulation of species that belong to families that include known coral pathogens (Alteromonadaceae, Vibrionaceae), bacteria previously isolated from diseased, stressed or injured marine invertebrates (for example, Rhodobacteraceae), and other species (for example, Campylobacteraceae) was observed. Some of these species were also present in healthy tissue samples, but the putative primary pathogen, Aurantimonas corallicida, was not detected in any sample by either method. Although an ecological succession of bacteria during disease progression after causation by a primary agent represents a possible explanation for our observations, we also discuss the possibility that a disease of yet to be determined etiology may have affected M. faveolata colonies and resulted in (or be a result of) an increase in opportunistic pathogens.
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Acknowledgements
We thank: Jennifer Kuehl for technical assistance, Ed Kirton for providing Perl scripts, Olga Pantos for additional information on published sequences, JGI-DOE for sponsoring clone library sequencing, students from the Genome Biology class (BIS 142 - 2007/2008) at UC Merced for preliminary data analysis, and Falk Warnecke for discussion on microbial ecology. This research was performed by Shinichi Sunagawa in partial fulfillment of his doctoral dissertation in Quantitative and Systems Biology at UC Merced. Ernesto Weil was funded by the GEF-World Bank CRTR program through the disease-working group and a NOAA-CRES Grant (NA170P2919). Logistical support was provided by the Department of Marine Sciences, UPRM. Part of this work was performed under the auspices of the US Department of Energy by the University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, under contract DE-AC02-05CH11231. NSF Grants IOS-0644438 and OCE-0313708 provided funding for Mónica Medina.
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Sunagawa, S., DeSantis, T., Piceno, Y. et al. Bacterial diversity and White Plague Disease-associated community changes in the Caribbean coral Montastraea faveolata. ISME J 3, 512–521 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2008.131
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2008.131
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