title: Eukarya associated with the stony coral Oculina patagonica from the Mediterranean Sea.
abstract: Oculina patagonica is a putative alien scleractinian coral from the Southwest Atlantic that inhabits across the Mediterranean Sea. Here, we have addressed the diversity of Eukarya associated with this coral and its changes related to the environmental conditions and coral status. A total of 46 colonies of O. patagonica were taken from Alicante coast (Spain) and Pietra Ligure coast (Italy) and analyzed using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of the small-subunit 18S rRNA and 16S plastid rRNA genes, internal transcribed spacer region 2 (ITS 2) analyses, and electron microscopy. Our results show that Eukarya and plastid community associated to O. patagonica change with environmental conditions and coral status. Cryptic species, which can be difficult to identify by optical methods, were distinguished by 18S rRNA gene DGGE: the barnacle Megatrema anglicum, which was detected at two locations, and two boring sponges related to Cliona sp. and Siphonodictyon coralliphagum detected in samples from Tabarca and Alicante Harbour, respectively. Eukaryotic phototrophic community from the skeletal matrix of healthy corals was dominated by Ochrosphaera sp. while bleached corals from the Harbour and Tabarca were associated to different uncultured phototrophic organism. Differences in ultrastructural morphologies of the zooxanthellae between healthy and bleached corals were observed. Nevertheless, no differences were found in Symbiodinium community among time, environments, coral status and location, showing that O. patagonica hosted only one genotype of Symbiodinium belonging to clade B2. The fact that this clade has not been previously detected in other Mediterranean corals and is more frequent in the tropical Western Atlantic, is a new evidence that O. patagonica is an alien species in the Mediterranean Sea.
authors.affiliation: Dpto. Ciencias del Mar y Biología Aplicada, Universidad de Alicante, 03080 Alicante, Spain. Electronic address: esther.portillo@ua.es.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rubio-Portillo
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Microscopía Electrónica, Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias-CSIC, Serrano 115 bis, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Souza-Egipsy
authors.affiliation: Dpto Biogeoquímica y Ecología Microbiana, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC, Serrano 115 bis, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ascaso
authors.affiliation: Dpto Biogeoquímica y Ecología Microbiana, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC, Serrano 115 bis, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Asunción
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Los Rios Murillo
authors.affiliation: Dpto. Ciencias del Mar y Biología Aplicada, Universidad de Alicante, 03080 Alicante, Spain; Centro de Investigación Marina (CIMAR), Universidad de Alicante-Ayuntamiento de Santa Pola, Cabo de Santa Pola s/n, Alicante, Spain.
authors.forename: Alfonso A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Ramos-Esplá
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Genetics, and Microbiology, University of Alicante, 03080 Alicante, Spain.
authors.forename: Josefa
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Antón
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000469:parasitology*; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000235:genetics; D058645:Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis; D004141:Dinoflagellida / Q000235:genetics*; D058087:Haptophyta / Q000235:genetics*; D058865:Introduced Species; D007558:Italy; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011161:Porifera / Q000235:genetics*; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S / Q000235:genetics; D013030:Spain; D001468:Thoracica / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S
keywords: 16S rRNA; 18S rRNA; DGGE; ITS; Oculina patagonica; Symbiodinium