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Bacterial Communities of the Gorgonian Octocoral Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae

  • Invertebrate Microbiology
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Abstract

Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae is a common inhabitant of Caribbean reefs and is a well-known source of diterpenes with diverse biological activities. Notably, this octocoral is the sole source of the pseudopterosin family of anti-inflammatory diterpenes and is harvested to supply commercial demand for these metabolites. We have characterized the composition of the bacterial community associated with P. elisabethae collected from Providencia Island, Colombia, using both culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches. Culture-independent analysis revealed that the bacterial communities were composed of eight phyla, of which Proteobacteria was the most abundant. At the class level, bacterial communities were dominated by Gammaproteobacteria (82–87 %). Additionally, operational taxonomic units related to Pseudomonas and Endozoicomonas species were the most abundant phylotypes consistently associated with P. elisabethae colonies. Culture-dependent analysis resulted in the identification of 40 distinct bacteria classified as Bacilli (15), Actinobacteria (12), Gammaproteobacteria (9), Alphaproteobacteria (3), and Betaproteobacteria (1). Only one of the 40 cultured bacteria was closely related to a dominant phylotype detected in the culture-independent study, suggesting that conventional culturing techniques failed to culture the majority of octocoral-associated bacterial diversity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first characterization of the bacterial diversity associated with P. elisabethae.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially financed by grants from the Colciencias and Universidad Nacional de Colombia. The Ministerio de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial granted collection and research permits (permission no. 4 of 10/02/2010). HC, BH, and RK gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chair Program, the University of Prince Edward Island, the Atlantic Innovation Fund, and the Jeanne and Jean-Louis Lévesque Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Química, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, District of Colombia, Colombia

    Hebelin Correa & Carmenza Duque

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Canada

    Hebelin Correa, Brad Haltli & Russell Kerr

  3. Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Canada

    Russell Kerr

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  1. Hebelin Correa
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Correspondence to Russell Kerr.

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Correa, H., Haltli, B., Duque, C. et al. Bacterial Communities of the Gorgonian Octocoral Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae . Microb Ecol 66, 972–985 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-013-0267-3

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