Phylogenetic analysis of epibacterial communities on the surfaces of four red macroalgae

Abstract

Macroalgal surfaces are prone to being attached by bacteria. Epibacterial community structures on marine macroalgae are host-specific but temporally and spatially variable. In this study, we investigated the structure of epibacterial communities on the surfaces of four red macroalgae, Gracilaria lemaneiformis, Gloiopeltis furcata, Mazzaella sp. and Porphyra yezoensis, by analyzing the sequences of 16S rRNA gene libraries. Healthy individuals of all macroalgae species were collected in winter from a farm at Dalian, China. The results showed that the epibacterial communities were mainly dominated by α-Proteobacteria, γ-Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes. Deinococcus-Thermus, Spirochaetes and ɛ-Proteobacteria were also found. The majority of cloned sequences shared the greatest similarity to those of culturable organisms. A large portion of sequences from the α-Proteobacteria homed in Roseobacter clade, i.e., genera Ahrensia, Roseovarius, Litoreibacter, Octadecabacter, Thaiassobacter and Sulfitobacter, while members of Bacteroidetes mainly belonged to family Flavobacteriaceae. The cloned sequences could be separated into 66 OTUs at 0.01 distance value, and rare common OTUs were found among libraries. At genus level, Pseudoalteromonas dominated Gr. lemaneiformis and Gl. furcata libraries, accounting for 72.2% and 47.3%, respectively. Sulfitobacter dominated P. yezoensis library, accounting for 35.4%. A previously undefined cluster within Deinococcus-Thermus dominated Mazzaella sp. library, accounting for 24.6% of the all. These results indicated that a broad range of bacteria inhabited the surfaces of these macroalgae.