Bacterial Community Composition change in temperate octocoral, Scleronephthya gracillima exposed to heat stress

Abstract

Coral diversity is affected by climate change. Environmental impacts can induce the change of relationship between coral and its symbiotic microbial community. In this study we collected a temperate octocoral, Scleronephthya gracillima in Jeju,Korea and exposed to various seawater temperature (26, 28 and 30ºC ) to compare the composition of bacterial community using the Next Generation Sequencing technique. The results showed total 88 species of bacteria were found in S.gracillima in wild condition and they were classified to 72 genus, 41 family, 32 order, 16 class and 13 phylum. Soft coral, S.gracillima were enriched in OTUs from the families Hahellaceae, Mycoplasmataceae, Alteromonadaceae, Anaplasmataceae, and Rhodobacteraceae. The number of Endozoicomonas elysicola showed an increase up to 26ºC then decrease in 28 and 30ºC groups