Woo Seonock, Yang Shan-Hua, Chen Hsing-Ju, Tseng Yu-Fang, Hwang Sung-Jin, De Palmas Stephane, Denis Vianney, Imahara Yukimitsu, Iwase Fumihito, Yum Seungshic, Tang Sen-Lin
Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology, Geoje, Republic of Korea.
Faculty of Marine Environmental Science, University of Science and Technology (UST), Geoje, Republic of Korea.
PLoS One. 2017 Aug 31;12(8):e0183663. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0183663. eCollection 2017.
Environmental impacts can alter relationships between a coral and its symbiotic microbial community. Furthermore, changes in the microbial community associated with increased seawater temperatures can cause opportunistic infections, coral disease and death. Interactions between soft corals and their associated microbes are not well understood. The species Scleronephthya gracillimum is distributed in tropical to temperate zones in coral assemblages along the Kuroshio Current region. In this study we collected S. gracillimum from various sites at different latitudes, and compared composition of their bacterial communities using Next Generation Sequencing. Coral samples from six geographically distinct areas (two sites each in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea) had considerable variation in their associated bacterial communities and diversity. Endozoicimonaceae was the dominant group in corals from Korea and Japan, whereas Mycoplasma was dominant in corals from Taiwan corals. Interestingly, the latter corals had lower relative abundance of Endozoicimonaceae, but greater diversity. These biogeographic differences in bacterial composition may have been due to varying environmental conditions among study locations, or because of host responses to prevailing environmental conditions. This study provided a baseline for future studies of soft coral microbiomes, and assessment of functions of host metabolites and soft coral holobionts.
环境影响可改变珊瑚与其共生微生物群落之间的关系。此外，与海水温度升高相关的微生物群落变化可导致机会性感染、珊瑚疾病和死亡。软珊瑚与其相关微生物之间的相互作用尚未得到充分了解。纤细硬指软珊瑚分布于黑潮区域珊瑚群落的热带至温带地区。在本研究中，我们从不同纬度的多个地点采集了纤细硬指软珊瑚，并使用下一代测序技术比较了它们细菌群落的组成。来自六个地理上不同区域（台湾、日本和韩国各两个地点）的珊瑚样本，其相关细菌群落和多样性存在相当大的差异。内生单胞菌科是韩国和日本珊瑚中的优势菌群，而支原体在台湾珊瑚中占主导地位。有趣的是，后一种珊瑚中内生单胞菌科的相对丰度较低，但多样性更高。细菌组成的这些生物地理差异可能是由于研究地点之间环境条件的不同，或者是宿主对主要环境条件的反应所致。本研究为未来软珊瑚微生物组研究以及宿主代谢产物和软珊瑚共生体功能评估提供了基线。
