Marine Biology Station Piran, National Institute of Biology, Piran, Slovenia.
Department of Limnology and Bio-Oceanography, Center of Functional Ecology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
PLoS One. 2019 Jan 15;14(1):e0198056. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198056. eCollection 2019.
Jellyfish are a prominent component of the plankton community. They frequently form conspicuous blooms which may interfere with different human enterprises. Among the aspects that remain understudied are jellyfish associations with microorganisms having potentially important implications for organic matter cycling. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the bacterial community associated with live moon jellyfish (Aurelia solida, Scyohozoa) in the Adriatic Sea. Using 16S rRNA clone libraries and culture-based methods, we have analyzed the bacterial community composition of different body parts: the exumbrella surface, oral arms, and gastric cavity, and investigated possible differences in medusa-associated bacterial community structure at the time of the jellyfish population peak, and during the senescent phase at the end of bloom. Microbiota associated with moon jellyfish was different from ambient seawater bacterial assemblage and varied between different body parts. Betaproteobacteria (Burkholderia, Cupriavidus and Achromobacter) dominated community in the gastral cavity of medusa, while Alphaproteobacteria (Phaeobacter, Ruegeria) and Gammaproteobacteria (Stenotrophomonas, Alteromonas, Pseudoalteromonas and Vibrio) prevailed on 'outer' body parts. Bacterial community structure changed during senescent phase, at the end of the jellyfish bloom, showing an increased abundance of Gammaproteobacteria, exclusively Vibrio. The results of cultured bacterial isolates showed the dominance of Gammaproeteobacteria, especially Vibrio and Pseudoalteromonas in all body parts. Our results suggest that jellyfish associated bacterial community might have an important role for the host, and that anthropogenic pollution in the Gulf of Trieste might affect their community structure.
水母是浮游生物群落的重要组成部分。它们经常形成明显的水华，可能会干扰到人类的不同活动。其中一些仍在研究中的方面是水母与微生物的关联，这些微生物对有机质循环具有潜在的重要意义。据我们所知，这项研究是首次调查亚得里亚海活月亮水母（Aurelia solida，Scyohozoa）相关的细菌群落。我们使用 16S rRNA 克隆文库和基于培养的方法，分析了不同身体部位的细菌群落组成：伞盖表面、口腕和胃腔，并调查了在水母种群高峰期和水华结束时衰老阶段，水母相关细菌群落结构可能存在的差异。与月亮水母相关的微生物群与环境海水细菌组合不同，并且在不同的身体部位之间存在差异。β变形菌（Burkholderia、Cupriavidus 和 Achromobacter）在水母的胃腔中占主导地位，而α变形菌（Phaeobacter、Ruegeria）和γ变形菌（Stenotrophomonas、Alteromonas、Pseudoalteromonas 和 Vibrio）在“外部”身体部位占优势。在水华结束时的衰老阶段，细菌群落结构发生了变化，表现出γ变形菌（尤其是 Vibrio）丰度的增加。培养的细菌分离物的结果表明，在所有身体部位中，γ变形菌都占主导地位，特别是 Vibrio 和 Pseudoalteromonas。我们的研究结果表明，水母相关的细菌群落可能对宿主具有重要作用，而的里雅斯特湾的人为污染可能会影响它们的群落结构。
