Marine Science Faculty Publications
Diversity of Bacteria Associated with the Caribbean Coral Montastraea franksi
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2001
Keywords
Coral, Bacteria, Microbes, Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), 16S rDNA
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s003380100138
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.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
No
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Coral Reefs, v. 20, issue 1, p. 85–91
Scholar Commons Citation
Rohwer, Forest; Breitbart, Mya; Jara, J.; Azam, Farooq; and Knowlton, Nancy, "Diversity of Bacteria Associated with the Caribbean Coral Montastraea franksi" (2001). Marine Science Faculty Publications. 798.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/798
