No Cover Image

Journal article 73 views 13 downloads

Bacterial Communities Associated With Crustose Coralline Algae Are Host‐Specific

Abigail C. Turnlund, Paul A. O'Brien, Laura Rix, Sophie Ferguson, Nadine Boulotte, So Young Jeong, Nicole S. Webster, Guillermo Diaz‐Pulido Orcid Logo, Muhammad Abdul Wahab, Miguel Lurgi Rivera Orcid Logo, Inka Vanwonterghem

MicrobiologyOpen, Volume: 15, Issue: 1, Start page: e70213

Swansea University Author: Miguel Lurgi Rivera Orcid Logo

  • mbo3.70213.pdf

    PDF | Version of Record

    © 2026 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.

    Download (3.24MB)

Check full text

DOI (Published version): 10.1002/mbo3.70213

Abstract

Crustose coralline algae (CCA) comprise hundreds of different species and are critical to coral reef growth, structural stability and coral recruitment. Despite their integral role in reef functioning, little is known about the diversity and structure of bacterial communities associated with CCA. We...

Full description

Published in: MicrobiologyOpen
ISSN: 2045-8827 2045-8827
Published: Wiley 2026
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71253
Abstract: Crustose coralline algae (CCA) comprise hundreds of different species and are critical to coral reef growth, structural stability and coral recruitment. Despite their integral role in reef functioning, little is known about the diversity and structure of bacterial communities associated with CCA. We address this knowledge gap by characterising the surface microbial communities of 15 Indo‐Pacific CCA species across eight different families from the Great Barrier Reef, using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. CCA microbial community composition was distinct and found to primarily differentiate by algal host species. When looking at the core bacterial communities, divergence across CCA microbiomes was additionally correlated to host phylogeny. CCA from similar light environments and depths also had more similar microbial communities, suggesting the potential role of environmental parameters in influencing microbial community organisation. The fundamental descriptions of CCA bacterial communities for a wide range of Indo‐Pacific species presented here provide essential baseline information to further inform CCA microbial symbiosis research.
Keywords: coral reefs, Great Barrier Reef, Indo-Pacific, microbiome, Rhodophyta, symbiosis
College: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Funders: This work was supported by the Australian Government Research Training Programme, UQ Graduate school and the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Programme, which aims to develop effective interventions to help the Reef resist, adapt and recover from the impacts of climate change, and which is funded by the partnership between the Australian Governments Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. G.D.P. and S.Y.J. thank the Australian Biological Resource Study (ABRS; grant no. RG19-35) and I.V. thanks the CSIRO Environomics FSP for support. The authors acknowledge support by the Open Access publication fund of Alfred-Wegener-Institute Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung.
Issue: 1
Start Page: e70213

Similar Items