Coral Fungia fungites- associated microbial communities and their shifts upon anthropogenic disturbances

Abstract: One of the main focus of coral reef ecology has been to shed light on the importance of all microbial members of coral holobiont and how their interactions contribute to the coral’s resilience. However, knowledge is lacking about the composition of microbial communities inhabiting the surface mucus layer of corals including Fungia fungites, a species that lives under stressful conditions close to fish farms in Vietnam. I investigated the prokaryotic communities that are thriving in Fungia fungites surface mucus layer (SML) in the wild and how they were affected upon antibiotics and nitrogen stress using 16S rRNA gene-based techniques. Firstly, I observed a significant alteration in the composition of microbial communities due to antibiotics effect, with exposed communities featuring lower richness and α-diversity in contrast to the controls. Further, mucosal microbial communities were found to be mostly dominated by Proteobacteria (especially of the classes of Alphaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria) and less by Bacteroidetes (Flavobacteriia). Results from this study suggest a developed antibiotic resistance of Alteromonadales and Campylobacterales indicated by their increased abundance upon antibiotics effect. Moving forward, future studies should focus on exploring also the contribution of non-prokaryotic microbial members of Fungia fungites holobiont and how antibiotic resistance can potentially influence coral’s health. The results support that Fungia fungites SML microbial communities are strongly affected by antibiotics exposure and call for future research to focus on the function of these microbial communities and how they can contribute to the coral’s resilience.