Multi-marker metabarcoding of coral skeletons reveals a rich microbiome and diverse evolutionary origins of endolithic algae

VR Marcelino; H Verbruggen

Journal article

Multi-marker metabarcoding of coral skeletons reveals a rich microbiome and diverse evolutionary origins of endolithic algae

VR Marcelino, H Verbruggen

Scientific Reports | NATURE PORTFOLIO | Published : 2016

DOI: 10.1038/srep31508

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Abstract

Bacteria, fungi and green algae are common inhabitants of coral skeletons. Their diversity is poorly characterized because they are difficult to identify with microscopy or environmental sequencing, as common metabarcoding markers have low phylogenetic resolution and miss a large portion of the biodiversity. We used a cost-effective protocol and a combination of markers (tufA, 16S rDNA, 18S rDNA and 23S rDNA) to characterize the microbiome of 132 coral skeleton samples. We identified a wide range of prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms, many never reported in corals before. We additionally investigated the phylogenetic diversity of the green algae - the most abundant eukaryotic member of thi..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Vanessa Rossetto Marcelino Author

Heroen Verbruggen Author

Related Projects (1)

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Grants

Awarded by Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment

Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Australian Biological Resources Study (RFL213-08), the Australian Research Council (FT110100585), the Botany Foundation (The University of Melbourne) and the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment. VRM receives a University of Melbourne scholarship. We thank Chiela Cremen and Chris Jackson for providing reference sequences, Todd McLay and Kym Pham for helping troubleshooting the library prep and Adam Robbins-Pianka for updating the filter_observation_by_samples.py script. We are very grateful to Francesca Benzoni for providing coral identifications during the Papua New Guinea sampling campaigns. We thank Claude Payri, the staff of the Alis research vessel and the La Planete Revisitee program for facilitating fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, and everyone who helped with field work in Western Australia. We also thank Madeleine van Oppen, Margaret Brookes, Chris Jackson, Analy Leite, Raquel Peixoto and an anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments on the manuscript.