The microbial signature provides insight into the mechanistic basis of coral success across reef habitats

Hernandez-Agreda, Alejandra, Leggat, William, Bongaerts, Pim, and Ainsworth, Tracy D. (2016) The microbial signature provides insight into the mechanistic basis of coral success across reef habitats. mBio, 7 (4). e00560-16. pp. 1-10.

[img]
Preview
PDF (Published Version) - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (2MB) | Preview
View at Publisher Website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00560-16
 
117
898


Abstract

For ecosystems vulnerable to environmental change, understanding the spatiotemporal stability of functionally crucial symbioses is fundamental to determining the mechanisms by which these ecosystems may persist. The coral Pachyseris speciosa is a successful environmental generalist that succeeds in diverse reef habitats. The generalist nature of this coral suggests it may have the capacity to form functionally significant microbial partnerships to facilitate access to a range of nutritional sources within different habitats. Here, we propose that coral is a metaorganism hosting three functionally distinct microbial interactions: a ubiquitous core microbiome of very few symbiotic host-selected bacteria, a microbiome of spatially and/or regionally explicit core microbes filling functional niches (<100 phylotypes), and a highly variable bacterial community that is responsive to biotic and abiotic processes across spatial and temporal scales (>100,000 phylotypes). We find that this coral hosts upwards of 170,000 distinct phylotypes and provide evidence for the persistence of a select group of bacteria in corals across environmental habitats of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. We further show that a higher number of bacteria are consistently associated with corals on mesophotic reefs than on shallow reefs. An increase in microbial diversity with depth suggests reliance by this coral on bacteria for nutrient acquisition on reefs exposed to nutrient upwelling. Understanding the complex microbial communities of host organisms across broad biotic and abiotic environments as functionally distinct microbiomes can provide insight into those interactions that are ubiquitous niche symbioses and those that provide competitive advantage within the hosts’ environment.

Item ID: 45243
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 2150-7511
Additional Information:

Copyright © 2016 Hernandez-Agreda et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Research Data: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/?term=PRJNA328211
Date Deposited: 30 Aug 2016 02:28
FoR Codes: 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3107 Microbiology > 310703 Microbial ecology @ 100%
SEO Codes: 97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970106 Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences @ 100%
Downloads: Total: 898
Last 12 Months: 92
More Statistics

Actions (Repository Staff Only)

Item Control Page Item Control Page