Lampert Yael, Kelman Dovi, Nitzan Yeshayahu, Dubinsky Zvy, Behar Adi, Hill Russell T
The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 2008 May;64(2):187-98. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2008.00458.x. Epub 2008 Mar 18.
Coral reefs are the most biodiverse and biologically productive of all marine ecosystems. Corals harbor diverse and abundant prokaryotic communities. However, little is known about the diversity of coral-associated bacterial communities. Mucus is a characteristic product of all corals, forming a coating over their polyps. The coral mucus is a rich substrate for microorganisms. Mucus was collected with a procedure using sterile cotton swabs that minimized contamination of the coral mucus by surrounding seawater. We used molecular techniques to characterize and compare the bacterial assemblages associated with the mucus of the solitary coral Fungia scutaria and the massive coral Platygyra lamellina from the Gulf of Eilat, northern Red Sea. The bacterial communities of the corals F. scutaria and P. lamellina were found to be diverse, with representatives within the Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria and Epsilonproteobacteria, as well as the Actinobacteria, Cytophaga-Flavobacter/Flexibacter-Bacteroides group, Firmicutes, Planctomyces, and several unclassified bacteria. However, the total bacterial assemblage of these two corals was different. In contrast to the bacterial communities of corals analyzed in previous studies by culture-based and culture-independent approaches, we found that the bacterial clone libraries of the coral species included a substantial proportion of Actinobacteria. The current study further supports the finding that bacterial communities of coral mucus are diverse.
珊瑚礁是所有海洋生态系统中生物多样性最高、生物生产力最强的。珊瑚栖息着多样且丰富的原核生物群落。然而，人们对与珊瑚相关的细菌群落多样性知之甚少。黏液是所有珊瑚的一种特征性产物，覆盖在其珊瑚虫上形成一层包膜。珊瑚黏液是微生物的丰富底物。我们采用一种使用无菌棉签的方法收集黏液，该方法将周围海水对珊瑚黏液的污染降至最低。我们运用分子技术对来自红海北部埃拉特湾的独居珊瑚盾形陀螺珊瑚（Fungia scutaria）和块状珊瑚薄片扁脑珊瑚（Platygyra lamellina）黏液中的细菌群落进行表征和比较。结果发现，盾形陀螺珊瑚和薄片扁脑珊瑚的细菌群落具有多样性，包括α-变形菌纲、β-变形菌纲、γ-变形菌纲、δ-变形菌纲和ε-变形菌纲的代表菌，以及放线菌、噬纤维菌-黄杆菌/弯曲杆菌-拟杆菌群、厚壁菌门、浮霉菌门和几种未分类细菌。然而，这两种珊瑚的细菌群落总体有所不同。与先前通过基于培养和不依赖培养的方法分析的珊瑚细菌群落不同，我们发现这两种珊瑚的细菌克隆文库中包含相当比例的放线菌。当前研究进一步支持了珊瑚黏液细菌群落具有多样性这一发现。
