Diversity of bacteria associated with the Caribbean coral Montastraea franksi (original) (raw)

Abstract.

In this study we characterized the prokaryotic microbiota associated with the reef-building coral Montastraea franksi in a culture-independent manner by sequencing 16S rDNAs. The majority of the bacteria identified by this method were novel species and belonged to a wide variety of microbial groups, with cyanobacteria and α-proteobacteria being the most abundant. In contrast, the bacteria cultured from the same M. franksi samples were closely related to previously described bacteria and consisted mostly of γ-proteobacteria. These results show that the microbial diversity associated with corals can be greatly underestimated when relying exclusively on culture-based methods. Our analyses also showed that one α-proteobacteria species was present in all M. franksi samples isolated from five reefs separated by up to 10 km. This finding is suggestive of a specific microbe–coral association.

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Marine Biology Research Division, University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California 92093-0202, USA, , , , ,
   F. Rohwer, F. Azam & N. Knowlton
2. School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, Department of Oceanography, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA, , , , ,
   M. Breitbart
3. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072, Balboa, Panama, , , , ,
   J. Jara

Authors

1. F. Rohwer
2. M. Breitbart
3. J. Jara
4. F. Azam
5. N. Knowlton

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Electronic Publication

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Rohwer, .F., Breitbart, .M., Jara, .J. et al. Diversity of bacteria associated with the Caribbean coral Montastraea franksi.Coral Reefs 20, 85–91 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s003380100138

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• Received: 16 August 2000
• Accepted: 30 November 2000
• Issue date: August 2001
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s003380100138