Marine Science Faculty Publications
Coral-associated Archaea
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2004
Keywords
Coral, Archaea, 16S rDNA, Fluorescent in situhybridization, FISH, Peptide nucleicacid probe, PNA
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.3354/meps273089
Abstract
The coral holobiont includes the coral, zooxanthellae, fungi, endolithic algae, and >30 species of Bacteria. Using culture-independent techniques, we now show that Archaea are also abundant and widespread on corals. Sequence analyses of Archaea on 3 species of Caribbean corals revealed that coral-associated Archaea are novel, diverse, and include representatives from both the Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota. Unlike zooxanthellae and Bacteria, the Archaea do not appear to form species-specific associations with reef-building corals. Fluorescent in situ hybridizations with peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes showed that Archaea were present at >107 cells cm-2 on Porites astreoides, comprising nearly half of the prokaryotic community. This study and one by Kellogg (Mar Ecol Prog Ser 273:81-88) show that Archaea are abundant, diverse, and potentially important components of the coral holobiont.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
No
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Marine Ecology Progress Series, v. 273, p. 89-96
Scholar Commons Citation
Wegley, Linda; Yu, Yanan; Breitbart, Mya; Casas, Veronica; Kline, David; and Rohwer, Forest, "Coral-associated Archaea" (2004). Marine Science Faculty Publications. 791.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/791
