Analysis of Symbiotic Bacterial Communities of Belizean Corals (2016)

Undergraduate: Lauren Speare

Faculty Advisor: Karl Castillo
Department: Environmental Science

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Corals maintain symbiotic relationships with complex communities of algae, other eukaryotes, and bacteria, collectively called the ¿¿¿holobiont¿¿¿. Studies suggest that differences in bacterial communities may affect coral holobiont nutrition, defense capabilities, and susceptibility to disease. Using next-generation metabarcoding of the 16S rRNA we will examine how bacterial communities differ between two coral host species (Siderastrea siderea and S. radians) from two distinct thermal environments of the Belize Barrier Reef System. These thermal environments differ in both mean annual temperature and thermal variation characterized here as: 1) ¿¿¿extreme¿¿¿ sites exhibiting high mean temperatures and high thermal variation, and 2) ¿¿¿low¿¿¿ sites exhibiting low mean temperatures and low thermal variation. Our results will help elucidate the complex dynamics that exist between coral-specific bacterial communities across different thermal environments. Characterizing the bacterial component of the coral holobiont can help us better recognize how species-level differences may affect overall holobiont physiology across a range of temperatures and lead to a more thorough understanding of coral disease susceptibility and overall fitness.