Very little is known about microbiota associated with the azooxanthellate scleratinan coral Tubastrea aurea, native to the Indo-Pacific region. Symbiotic microbiota of  T. aurea were studied at four particular marine water habitats of Taiwan including hydrothermal vents (HV), the coastal waters next to an abandoned copper mine(CM), nuclear power plants (NPP) and a site next to conservation zone (CZ). . DNA sequencing of the bacterial barcoding gene 16S rRNA full-length (~1.5 kbp) was applied to reveal the biodiversity of the coral-associated microbiome in response to above contrasting environments. Bacterial communities from coral samples significantly varied between extremely polluted and normal habitats. The chemoheterotrophic bacterial genus Endozoicomonas dominated the tissue samples from HV and CM sites, while phototrophic cyanobacteria belonging to Synechococcus dominated the NPP and CZ sites. The results revealed that the bacterial communities associated with T. aurea vary in their structural and functional profiles to support host adaptations towards extreme environmental conditions, which can be added to their physiological strategies in dispersion success, range expansion and invasiveness.  The present study represents a pilot approach in Taiwan and provides information for several as yet unanswered questions that will be pursued by in situ transplantalation experiments of individual corals in the future.

Primary Presenter: Jiang-Shiou Hwang, National Taiwan Ocean University (jshwang@mail.ntou.edu.tw)

Authors:

Gowri Krishna Girija, National Taiwan Ocean University/Institute of Marine Biology  (gowri.krishna17@gmail.com)

Li-Chun Tseng, National Taiwan Ocean University/Institute of Marine Biology  ()

Yu-Ling Chen, National Taiwan Ocean University/Institute of Marine Biology  ()

Pei-Jie Meng, National Dong Hwa University/Graduate Institute of Marine Biology  ()

Ying-Ning Ho, National Taiwan Ocean University/Institute of Marine Biology & National Taiwan Ocean University/Centre of Excellence for the Oceans  ()

Jiang-Shiou Hwang, National Taiwan Ocean University/Institute of Marine Biology & National Taiwan Ocean University, Centre of Excellence for the Oceans & National Taiwan Ocean University, Centre of Excellence for Ocean Engineering  (jshwang@mail.ntou.edu.tw)