title: Compositional shifts in bacterial communities associated with the coral Palythoa caribaeorum due to anthropogenic effects.
abstract: Corals harbor abundant and diverse prokaryotic communities that may be strongly influenced by human activities, which in turn compromise the normal functioning of coral species and predispose them to opportunistic infections. In this study, we investigated the effect of sewage dumping on the bacterial communities associated with the soft coral Palythoa caribaeorum at two sites in the Brazilian coast. We observed a dominance of bacterial species classified as human pathogens at sites exposed to untreated sewage discharge. The microbial diversity of undisturbed sites was more homogeneous and diverse and showed greater abundance. In addition, bacterial communities differed substantially between the exposed and undisturbed areas. The microbial community associated with the samples collected from the exposed sites revealed the anthropogenic effect caused by organic matter from untreated sewage dumping, with an abundance of pathogenic bacterial species.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-graduação em Diversidade Biológica e Conservação nos Trópicos, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Campus A. C. Simões, Av. Lourival Melo Mota, s/n, CEP 57072-900 Maceió, AL, Brazil.
authors.forename: Gustavo Vasconcelos Bastos
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Paulino
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Campus Arapiraca, Av. Manoel Severino Barbosa, s/n, CEP 57309-005 Arapiraca, AL, Brazil.
authors.forename: Leonardo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Broetto
authors.affiliation: René Rachou Research Center (CPqRR-FIOCRUZ), Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors.forename: Victor Satler
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Pylro
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Campus A. C. Simões, Av. Lourival Melo Mota, s/n, CEP 57072-900 Maceió, AL, Brazil. Electronic address: melissa.landell@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Melissa Fontes
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Landell
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000382:microbiology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D001938:Brazil; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D014876:Water Pollution
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
keywords: Cnidarian; Environmental effect; Microbial community; Next generation sequencing; Organic matter; Sewage dumping