Metagenomic analysis of microbial community associated with coral mucus from the Gulf of Aqaba

Emad Hussien,Abdul-Salam Juhmani,Ruba Almasri,Fuad Al-Horani,Mohannad Al-Saghir

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02876

Emad Hussien, Abdul-Salam Juhmani + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02876

Copy DOI

Abstract

Coral-associated microbial communities contribute to a wide variety of useful roles regarding the their host, and therefore, the arrangement of the general microbiome network can emphatically impact coral wellbeing and survival. Various pollution sources can interfere and disrupt the microbial relationship with corals. Here, we adopted the bacterial tag-encoded FLX amplicon pyrosequencing (bTEFAP®) technique to investigate the shift of microbial communities associated with the mucus of the coral Stylophora pistillata collected from five sites (Marine Science Station, Industrial Complex, Oil Terminal, Public Beach, and Phosphate Port) along the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea). Our results revealed a high diversity in bacterial populations associated with coral mucus. Proteobacteria were observed to be the dominating phylum among all sampling sites. The identified bacterial taxa belong to the pathogenic bacteria from the genus Vibrio was presented in varying abundances at all sampling sites. Diversity and similarity analysis of microbial communists based on rarefaction curve and UniFrac cluster respectively demonstrated that there are variances in microbial groups associated with coral mucus along sites. The pollution sources among different locations along the Gulf of Aqaba seem to affect the coral-associated holobiont leading to changes in bacterial populations due to increasing human activities.

Highlights

Corals are diverse meta-organisms that provide an essential biohabitat for many other marine species (Mulhall, 2009), for instance, bacteria, Archaea, and microalgae (Rosenberg et al, 2007)
The Shannon index values were comparable across sampling sites indicating that the diversity of bacteria in the community is significantly different between the sampling sites affected by different pollution sources
These operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were categorized as alpha, beta- and gamma- Proteobacteria, Bacilli, Flavobacteriia, and Verrucomicrobia, which were described as ubiquitous species from healthy and diseased coral using the clone-based sequences belonging to the order Vibrionales were observed at AQ4

Summary

Introduction

Corals are diverse meta-organisms that provide an essential biohabitat for many other marine species (Mulhall, 2009), for instance, bacteria, Archaea, and microalgae (zooxanthellae) (Rosenberg et al, 2007). Recent research indicates that more than 30% of coral reefs have been destroyed due to emerging diseases (Harvell et al, 2007) Some of these diseases are attributed to coral-pathogenic microorganisms and other factors (Rosenberg and Ben-Haim, 2002; Hughes et al, 2003). Microorganisms linked to corals appear to strengthen the host's well-being by supplying a nutritional source and protecting the host from other pathogenic bacteria by the production of antimicrobial compounds (Ritchie, 2006). These microbial communities exist naturally in various anatomic sites in the coral including the surface mucus layer and the coral tissues (Bourne and Munn, 2005). Many efforts have focused on characterizing these microbial communities and their specific metabolic role in coral health (Lesser et al, 2004; Olson et al, 2009; Zhang et al, 2015; Zaneveld et al, 2016; Welsh et al, 2016)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion