Distinct bacterial communities associated with the coral model Aiptasia in aposymbiotic and symbiotic states with Symbiodinium.

Journal article


Röthig, Till, Costa, Rúben M., Simona, Fabia, Baumgarten, Sebastian, Torres, Ana F., Radhakrishnan, Anand, Aranda, Manuel and Voolstra, Christian R. 2016. Distinct bacterial communities associated with the coral model Aiptasia in aposymbiotic and symbiotic states with Symbiodinium. Frontiers in Marine Science. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00234
AuthorsRöthig, Till, Costa, Rúben M., Simona, Fabia, Baumgarten, Sebastian, Torres, Ana F., Radhakrishnan, Anand, Aranda, Manuel and Voolstra, Christian R.
Abstract

Coral reefs are in decline. The basic functional unit of coral reefs is the coral metaorganism or holobiont consisting of the cnidarian host animal, symbiotic algae of the genus Symbiodinium, and a specific consortium of bacteria (among others), but research is slow due to the difficulty of working with corals. Aiptasia has proven to be a tractable model system to elucidate the intricacies of cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbioses, but characterization of the associated bacterial microbiome is required to provide a complete and integrated understanding of holobiont function. In this work, we characterize and analyze the microbiome of aposymbiotic and symbiotic Aiptasia and show that bacterial associates are distinct in both conditions. We further show that key microbial associates can be cultured without their cnidarian host. Our results suggest that bacteria play an important role in the symbiosis of Aiptasia with Symbiodinium, a finding that underlines the power of the Aiptasia model system where cnidarian hosts can be analyzed in aposymbiotic and symbiotic states. The characterization of the native microbiome and the ability to retrieve culturable isolates contributes to the resources available for the Aiptasia model system. This provides an opportunity to comparatively analyze cnidarian metaorganisms as collective functional holobionts and as separated member species. We hope that this will accelerate research into understanding the intricacies of coral biology, which is urgently needed to develop strategies to mitigate the effects of environmental change.

KeywordsCoral reef; cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis
Year2016
JournalFrontiers in Marine Science
PublisherFrontiers
ISSN2296-7745
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00234
Web address (URL)http://hdl.handle.net/10545/623334
hdl:10545/623334
Publication dates18 Nov 2016
Publication process dates
Deposited21 Jan 2019, 09:05
Accepted01 Nov 2016
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Archived with thanks to Frontiers in Marine Science

ContributorsKing Abdullah University of Science and Technology
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