A coral-associated actinobacterium mitigates coral bleaching under heat stress

Li, Jie, Zou, Yiyang, Li, Qiqi, Zhang, Jian, Bourne, David G., Lyu, Yuanjiao, Liu, Cong, and Zhang, Si (2023) A coral-associated actinobacterium mitigates coral bleaching under heat stress. Environmental Microbiome, 18 (1). 83.

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Abstract

Background: The positive effects of exposing corals to microorganisms have been reported though how the benefits are conferred are poorly understood. Here, we isolated an actinobacterial strain (SCSIO 13291) from Pocillopora damicornis with capabilities to synthesize antioxidants, vitamins, and antibacterial and antiviral compounds supported with phenotypic and/or genomic evidence. Strain SCSIO 13291 was labeled with 5 (and − 6)-carboxytetramethylrhodamine, succinimidyl ester and the labeled cell suspension directly inoculated onto the coral polyp tissues when nubbins were under thermal stress in a mesocosm experiment. We then visualized the labelled bacterial cells and analyzed the coral physiological, transcriptome and microbiome to elucidate the effect this strain conferred on the coral holobiont under thermal stress.

Results: Subsequent microscopic observations confirmed the presence of the bacterium attached to the coral polyps. Addition of the SCSIO 13291 strain reduced signs of bleaching in the corals subjected to heat stress. At the same time, alterations in gene expression, which were involved in reactive oxygen species and light damage mitigation, attenuated apoptosis and exocytosis in addition to metabolite utilization, were observed in the coral host and Symbiodiniaceae populations. In addition, the coral associated bacterial community altered with a more stable ecological network for samples inoculated with the bacterial strain.

Conclusions: Our results provide insights into the benefits of a putative actinobacterial probiotic strain that mitigate coral bleaching signs. This study suggests that the inoculation of bacteria can potentially directly benefit the coral holobiont through conferring metabolic activities or through indirect mechanisms of suppling additional nutrient sources.

Item ID: 81424
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 2524-6372
Keywords: An actinobacterial probiotic, Coral bleaching, Coral holobiont, Coral microbiome, Ecological network, Nutrient acquisition, Symbiodiniaceae, Thermal stress, Transcriptome
Copyright Information: © The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
Date Deposited: 15 Jan 2024 00:48
FoR Codes: 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3107 Microbiology > 310703 Microbial ecology @ 50%
31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310305 Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) @ 50%
SEO Codes: 28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280102 Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences @ 100%
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