title: Spatial and species variations in bacterial communities associated with corals from the Red Sea as revealed by pyrosequencing.
abstract: Microbial associations with corals are common and are most likely symbiotic, although their diversity and relationships with environmental factors and host species remain unclear. In this study, we adopted a 16S rRNA gene tag-pyrosequencing technique to investigate the bacterial communities associated with three stony Scleractinea and two soft Octocorallia corals from three locations in the Red Sea. Our results revealed highly diverse bacterial communities in the Red Sea corals, with more than 600 ribotypes detected and up to 1,000 species estimated from a single coral species. Altogether, 21 bacterial phyla were recovered from the corals, of which Gammaproteobacteria was the most dominant group, and Chloroflexi, Chlamydiae, and the candidate phylum WS3 were reported in corals for the first time. The associated bacterial communities varied greatly with location, where environmental conditions differed significantly. Corals from disturbed areas appeared to share more similar bacterial communities, but larger variations in community structures were observed between different coral species from pristine waters. Ordination methods identified salinity and depth as the most influential parameters affecting the abundance of Vibrio, Pseudoalteromonas, Serratia, Stenotrophomonas, Pseudomonas, and Achromobacter in the corals. On the other hand, bacteria such as Chloracidobacterium and Endozoicomonas were more sensitive to the coral species, suggesting that the host species type may be influential in the associated bacterial community, as well. The combined influences of the coral host and environmental factors on the associated microbial communities are discussed. This study represents the first comparative study using tag-pyrosequencing technology to investigate the bacterial communities in Red Sea corals.
authors.affiliation: Division of Life Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: On On
authors.initials: OO
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jiangke
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Salim
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bougouffa
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zenon
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Batang
authors.forename: Renmao
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Abdulaziz
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Al-Suwailem
authors.forename: Pei-Yuan
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Qian
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000382:microbiology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D058448:Biota; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D019156:Indian Ocean; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D058974:Phylogeography; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D021521:Ribotyping; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S