Diversity and distribution of coral-associated bacteria
Open accessAbstract
Coral reefs are the most biodiverse of all marine ecosystems; however, very little is known about prokaryotic diversity in these systems.To address this issue, we sequenced over 1000 bacterial 16S rDNAs from 3 massive coral species (Montastraea franksi, Diploria strigosa, and Porites astreoides) in Panama and Bermuda.Analysis of only 14 coral samples yielded 430 distinct bacterial ribotypes.Statistical analyses suggest that additional sequencing would have resulted in a total of 6000 bacterial ribotypes.Half of the sequences shared < 93% identity to previously published 16S sequences, and therefore probably represent novel bacterial genera and species; this degree of novelty was substantially higher than that observed for other marine samples.Samples from the Panama corals were more diverse than those from Bermuda, paralleling diversity gradients seen in metazoans.The coral-bacteria associations were non-random.Different coral species had distinct bacterial communities, even when physically adjacent, while bacterial communities from the same coral species separated by time (~1 yr) or space (3000 km) were similar.Analysis of the branching coral Porites furcata showed that bacterial ribotypes can also be structured spatially within colonies.Therefore, corals and reefs represent landscapes of diverse, ecologically structured prokaryotic communities.
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Corals have a rich endolithic community, and together, they are known as the coral holobiont.
“Corals have a rich endolithic community, and together, they are known as the coral holobiont [1,10,11].”
From The Iconic Philippine Coral Reef at Steinhart Aquarium: The Husbandry, Welfare, Behavior, and Veterinary Care Considerations of a Large Multi-Taxa Living Coral Reef System (2023) · cites this paper as [11]
Figure 5 in “Coral microbiotas and disease” describes the coral holobiont as the coral animal, zooxanthellae, and prokaryotes, and says it also includes endolithic algae. The Introduction describes diverse coral-associated prokaryotes, but the cited passages do not establish that corals have a rich specifically endolithic community. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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- Authors
- Rohwer, F., Seguritan, V, Azam, F., & Knowlton, N.
- Affiliations
- San Diego State University (US)
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US)
- Corresponding author
- Rohwer, F
- Venue
- Marine Ecology Progress Series
- Publisher
- Inter-Research Science Center
- Published
- 2002
- Volume
- 243
- Pages
- 1-10
- ISSN
- 0171-8630 (ISSN-L)
- 1616-1599
- OpenAlex
- W2069200950
- Cited by
- 1,337
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 45 · 2025: 47 · 2024: 58 · 2023: 78 · 2022: 77 · 2021: 86 · 2020: 98 · 2019: 77 · 2018: 80 · 2017: 97 · 2016: 79 · 2015: 70 · 2014: 51 · 2013: 73 · 2012: 56
- FWCI
- 9.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Marine Ecology Progress Series (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Smithsonian Institution
- San Diego State University
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biotechnology › Marine Sponges and Natural Products
- Keywords
- coral-associated bacteria, coral microbiome, bacterial diversity, 16S rRNA gene, Diploria strigosa, Porites astreoides, bacterial community structure, spatial distribution of bacteria, novel bacterial taxa, Panama, Bermuda
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