Revealing the impact of global mass bleaching on coral microbiome through 16S rRNA gene-based metagenomic analysis

Publication date: Available online 31 December 2019Source: Microbiological ResearchAuthor(s): Ramu Meenatchi, Thangadurai Thinesh, Pownraj Brindangnanam, Saqib Hassan, George Seghal Kiran, Joseph SelvinAbstractCoral bleaching, a phenomenon by which the expulsion of corals’ alveolate endosymbiont (zooxanthellae) occurs when experiencing thermal stress is the major cause for devastation of corals. However, apart from this obligate symbiont of Scleractinian corals, there are different kinds of microbes that exist as stable, transient or sporadic members of the holobiont which resides within various microhabitats in the coral structures. Thus, this study aims to profile the coral bacterial community composition among different coral genera (thermally-sensitive (Acropora digetifera and A. noblis) and thermally resistant (Favites abdita) coral genera analyzed by field monitoring surveys) and also in a particular coral genus (thermally sensitive coral-A. digetifera) at two different sampling times (March 2016 and January 2017). A total of about 608695 paired end reads were obtained through Illumina MiSeq Sequencing platform. The alpha diversity indices (ACE, Chao1 and Shannon) were found to be higher in A. nobilis, followed by A. digetifera and Favites abdita, and the corresponding Simpson values were also found to follow the same trend, showing the sample are both rich in species diversity and species evenness. Proteobacteria was found to be the most dominant phylum and Gammaprot...
Source: Microbiological Research - Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: research