AUTHOR=Shiu Jia-Ho , Lin Che-Hung , Mulla Aziz Jabir , Dang Viet Do Hung , Fong Chia-Ling , Nozawa Yoko 

TITLE=Bacterial Communities in Coral Offspring Vary Between in situ and ex situ Spawning Environments

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.796514

DOI=10.3389/fmars.2022.796514

ISSN=2296-7745

ABSTRACT=<p>Examining the bacterial communities of offspring is key to understanding the establishment of coral-bacteria associations. Although high sensitivity to the environment is expected, previous studies have only examined bacterial communities of coral offspring in <italic>ex situ</italic> (laboratory) environments, not in <italic>in situ</italic> (field) environments. Here, we examined and compared the effect of <italic>ex situ</italic> and <italic>in situ</italic> environments on bacterial communities of newly released offspring (eggs and larvae) and their maternal colonies in two phylogenetically distant coral species with different reproductive modes: <italic>Dipsastraea speciosa</italic> (Scleractinia; spawner) and <italic>Heliopora coerulea</italic> (Octocorallia; brooder). Our results demonstrated that the spawning environments do not affect the bacterial composition in maternal colonies, but influence that of the offspring (eggs of <italic>D. speciosa</italic> and larvae of <italic>H. coerulea</italic>). Dominant bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) varied between <italic>in situ</italic> and <italic>ex situ</italic> environments in the eggs of <italic>D. speciosa</italic>. The composition of bacterial communities among larvae of <italic>H. coerulea</italic> samples was more diverse in <italic>in situ</italic> environments than in <italic>ex situ</italic> environments. This study provides the first information on <italic>in situ</italic> bacterial communities in coral eggs and larvae and highlights their sensitivities to the local environment. Future studies must take into consideration the influence of <italic>ex situ</italic> environments on bacterial communities in coral offspring.</p>