Title: COMPARISON OF BACTERIAL COMMUNITIES ASSOCIATED WITH AGARICIA LAMARCKI FROM MESOPHOTIC AND SHALLOW WATER REEFS

Abstract: Access to mesophotic reefs provides a unique opportunity to study the holobiont composition in corals across their bathymetric distributions. We aim at characterizing the coral-associated bacterial community profiles of the scleractinian coral Agaricia lamarcki in Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands. Agaricia lamarcki attains a wide bathymetric distribution in the Caribbean where it can be found in shallow (5-10) m and mesophotic reefs (80 m). Associations between bacterial communities and coral hosts are generally species specific, however, we hypothesize that shifts will be observed in the bacterial communities associated with shallow and mesophotic corals. We recently sequenced thousands of DNA sequences using Illumina sequencing technology from the bacterial 16S rRNA gene from over 50 samples of A. lamarcki tissue. Comparison of alpha and beta diversities and compositions of samples will be made using the Qiime software and differences in phylogenetic composition between depth-differentiated samples will be visualized with heat maps and network representations.

Authors: Schizas NV, Appeldoorn R, Nadathur G

Presentation: Poster (#321)

Session: 29

Date: 06/21/16

Time: 18:15 - 19:45

Location: Poster/Exhibit Hall

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