Abstract
Coral reef endogenous to the Red Sea ecosystem is one of the largest globally known living reefs that are remarkably distinctive to constant high temperature and salinity. Coral microbiota is one of the most important prespectives contributing to coral survival in such conditions. Four soft corals endogenous to the eastern Red Sea side at Al Rayyis White Head, KSA were collected and identified as Litophyton sp., Sinularia sp., Xenia sp. and Sarcophyton sp. Soft corals-associated microbiota were investigated using Illumina sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes. Results revealed higher bacterial diversity. Assignment of bacterial reads at the phylum level revealed the predominance of Proteobacteria in all coral-associated microbiotas followed by Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. At the family level, Litophyton sp. was dominated by Hahellaceae, Staphylococcaceae, Prevotellaceae, Moraxellaceae and Bacteroidaceae, while Xenia sp. was dominated by Hahellaceae and Anaplasmataceae. The microbiota of Sinularia sp. were dominated by Pseudomonadaceae and Enterobacteriaceae. Sarcophyton sp. microbiota mainly include members of Enterobacteriaceae only.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of Taibah University for Science |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2 2023 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2023-03-08Acknowledgements: This work was supported by Taibah University. The authors are thankful to Dr. Rafat Afif, director of the marine science department, at Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt, Dr. Michael Berumen, marina science director, Red Sea research center, Dr. Francesca Benzoni at King Abdullah university of science and technology, Dr. Cathy McFadden, Department of Biology, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, USA for their assistance in identifying the soft corals.
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.