AUTHOR=Bednarz Vanessa N. , van de Water Jeroen A. J. M. , Grover Renaud , Maguer Jean-François , Fine Maoz , Ferrier-Pagès Christine TITLE=Unravelling the Importance of Diazotrophy in Corals – Combined Assessment of Nitrogen Assimilation, Diazotrophic Community and Natural Stable Isotope Signatures JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology VOLUME=12 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2021.631244 DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2021.631244 ISSN=1664-302X ABSTRACT=
There is an increasing interest in understanding the structure and function of the microbiota associated with marine and terrestrial organisms, because it can play a major role in host nutrition and resistance to environmental stress. Reef-building corals live in association with diazotrophs, which are microbes able to fix dinitrogen. Corals are known to assimilate diazotrophically-derived nitrogen (DDN), but it is still not clear whether this nitrogen source is derived from coral-associated diazotrophs and whether it substantially contributes to the coral’s nitrogen budget. In this study, we aimed to provide a better understanding of the importance of DDN for corals using a holistic approach by simultaneously assessing DDN assimilation rates (using 15N2 tracer technique), the diazotrophic bacterial community (using