Marques Matilde, Pascoal Francisco, Villela Helena, Santos Elsa, Baylina Núria, Peixoto Raquel S, Keller-Costa Tina, Costa Rodrigo
Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences (iBB) and Institute for Health and Bioeconomy (i4HB), Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
Department of Bioengineering, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
Front Microbiol. 2025 Sep 3;16:1651109. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1651109. eCollection 2025.
Octocorals play a critical role in coral ecosystems, contributing to habitat complexity and marine biodiversity. Despite their ecological importance, the microbial communities associated with octocorals remain understudied, particularly under ex situ conditions.
This study compared the prokaryotic communities of the tropical octocoral sp., surrounding seawater, and sediments ("biotopes") from a natural Red Sea reef and a long-term tropical aquarium mesocosm designed to emulate natural reef ecosystems ("habitats"). Using high throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we assessed community composition, diversity, and core taxa.
Distinct prokaryotic assemblages were associated with each biotope, with core symbionts persisting across habitats. While seawater communities diverged between habitats, sediment communities were compositionally more similar, dominated by , , , and . sp. harbored specific symbionts consistently across habitats. Alpha-diversity in sp. did not differ significantly between habitats (ANOVA with Tukey's HSD, > 0.05), and beta-diversity patterns were also not significant (PERMANOVA, > 0.05). We identified 19 ASVs shared across sp. habitats, dominated by , unclassified , and . Several core families, such as , , and were consistently associated with sp. across habitats, indicating stability of specific host-microbe associations even after 25 years in aquarium conditions. Phylogenetic analysis further demonstrated the selective maintenance of diverse lineages in aquarium-kept specimens.
These findings suggest that large-scale aquarium ecosystems can preserve, to some extent, the structure and diversity of coral-associated microbiomes over extended time periods. By supporting key symbiotic taxa, multi-trophic integrated aquarium systems may serve as repositories for healthy coral-associated microbial communities and microbiome stewardship, underscoring their value in future conservation efforts to sustain the biodiversity of marine holobionts in the face of growing environmental challenges.
八放珊瑚在珊瑚生态系统中发挥着关键作用，有助于增加栖息地的复杂性和海洋生物多样性。尽管它们具有重要的生态意义，但与八放珊瑚相关的微生物群落仍未得到充分研究，特别是在异地条件下。
本研究比较了热带八放珊瑚、周围海水和沉积物（“生物群落生境”）中的原核生物群落，这些样本分别来自红海天然珊瑚礁以及一个旨在模拟天然珊瑚礁生态系统的长期热带水族箱中宇宙（“生境”）。我们使用高通量16S rRNA基因测序技术评估了群落组成、多样性和核心分类群。
每个生物群落生境都有独特的原核生物组合，核心共生体在不同生境中持续存在。虽然海水群落在不同生境之间存在差异，但沉积物群落的组成更相似，主要由、、和主导。八放珊瑚在不同生境中始终拥有特定的共生体。八放珊瑚的α多样性在不同生境之间没有显著差异（采用Tukey's HSD的方差分析，>0.05），β多样性模式也不显著（PERMANOVA，>0.05）。我们鉴定出19个在八放珊瑚生境中共享的ASV，主要由、未分类的和主导。几个核心科，如、和，在不同生境中始终与八放珊瑚相关，这表明即使在水族箱条件下饲养25年后，特定宿主 - 微生物关联仍具有稳定性。系统发育分析进一步证明了在水族箱饲养的八放珊瑚标本中不同谱系的选择性维持。
这些发现表明，大规模的水族箱生态系统在一定程度上可以在较长时间内保持与珊瑚相关的微生物群落的结构和多样性。通过支持关键的共生分类群，多营养综合水族箱系统可以作为健康的与珊瑚相关的微生物群落的储存库和微生物群落管理的场所，凸显了它们在未来面对日益严峻的环境挑战时维持海洋共生体生物多样性的保护工作中的价值。
