Affiliation:
1. Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica Taipei Taiwan
2. Institute of Oceanography National Taiwan University Taipei Taiwan
3. Molecular and Biological Agricultural Sciences Program, Taiwan International Graduate Program National Chung Hsing University and Academia Sinica Taipei Taiwan
4. Graduate Institute of Biotechnology National Chung Hsing University Taichung Taiwan
5. School of BioSciences The University of Melbourne Melbourne Victoria Australia
6. Institute of Marine Environment and Ecology National Taiwan Ocean University Keelung Taiwan
7. Center of Excellence for the Oceans National Taiwan Ocean University Keelung Taiwan
8. Taiwan Ocean Genome Center National Taiwan Ocean University Keelung Taiwan
Abstract
AbstractCoral microbiomes differ in the mucus, soft tissue and skeleton of a coral colony, but whether variations exist in different tissues of a single polyp is unknown. In the stony coral, Fimbriaphyllia ancora, we identified 8,994 amplicon sequencing variants (ASVs) in functionally differentiated polyp tissues, i.e., tentacles, body wall, mouth and pharynx, mesenterial filaments, and gonads (testes and ovaries), with a large proportion of ASVs specific to individual tissues. However, shared ASVs comprised the majority of microbiomes from all tissues in terms of relative abundance. No tissue‐specific ASVs were found, except in testes, for which there were only two samples. At the generic level, Endozoicomonas was significantly less abundant in the body wall, where calicoblastic cells reside. On the other hand, several bacterial taxa presented significantly higher abundances in the mouth. Interestingly, although without statistical confirmation, gonadal tissues showed lower ASV richness and relatively high abundances of Endozoicomonas (in ovaries) and Pseudomonas (in testes). These findings provide evidence for microbiome heterogeneity between tissues within coral polyps, suggesting a promising field for future studies of functional interactions between corals and their bacterial symbionts.