Journal article
DNA from non-viable bacteria biases diversity estimates in the corals Acropora loripes and Pocillopora acuta
AM Dungan, L Geissler, AS Williams, CR Gotze, EC Flynn, LL Blackall, MJH van Oppen
Environmental Microbiome | BMC | Published : 2023
Abstract
Background: Nucleic acid-based analytical methods have greatly expanded our understanding of global prokaryotic diversity, yet standard metabarcoding methods provide no information on the most fundamental physiological state of bacteria, viability. Scleractinian corals harbour a complex microbiome in which bacterial symbionts play critical roles in maintaining health and functioning of the holobiont. However, the coral holobiont contains both dead and living bacteria. The former can be the result of corals feeding on bacteria, rapid swings from hyper- to hypoxic conditions in the coral tissue, the presence of antimicrobial compounds in coral mucus, and an abundance of lytic bacteriophages. R..
View full abstractGrants
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
The corals used in this study were originally collected from the sea estates of the Wuthathi, Bindal, Wulgurukaba, and Manbarra People. We acknowledge their contributions to this research not only by way of the coral samples, but also through Indigenous Knowledge and custodianship of the land and sea country on which we work. We are grateful to Lonidas Koukoumaftsis, Dr. Jose Montalvo-Proano, Dr. Thomas (Ed) Roberts, Rachel Neil, and Hugo Scharfenstein for coral material.