The M ontastraea faveolata microbiome: ecological and temporal influences on a C aribbean reef‐building coral in decline

Abstract

Summary Coral‐associated microbial communities, including protists, bacteria, archaea and viruses, are important components of the coral holobiont that influence the health of corals and coral reef ecosystems. Evidence suggests that the composition of these microbial communities is affected by numerous parameters; however, little is known about the confluence of these ecological and temporal effects. In this study, we used ribosomal RNA gene sequencing to identify the zooxanthellae, bacteria and archaea associated with healthy and yellow band diseased ( YBD ) colonies in the M edia L una reef of L a P arguera, P uerto R ico, in order to examine the influence of YBD on the M ontastraea faveolata microbiome. In addition, we evaluated the influence of season on the differences between healthy and YBD M . faveolata microbiomes by sampling from the same tagged colonies in both M arch and S eptember of 2007. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first coral microbiome study to examine sequences from the zooxanthellar, bacterial and archaeal communities simultaneously from individual coral samples. Our results confirm differences in the M . faveolata zooxanthellar, bacterial and archaeal communities between healthy and YBD colonies in M arch; however, the S eptember communities do not exhibit the same differences. Moreover, we provide evidence that the differences in the M . faveolata microbiomes between M arch and S eptember are more significant than those observed between healthy and YBD . This data suggest that the entire coral microbiome, not just the bacterial community, is a dynamic environment where both disease and season play important roles.

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