ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Microbial Symbioses
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1635356
This article is part of the Research TopicMicrobial Influences on Coral Reef Resilience and RecoveryView all 3 articles
Functional Reorganization and Taxonomic Shifts in the Symbiotic Microbiota of the Temperate Soft Coral Eleutherobia rubra Under Heat Stress
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jeju Bio Research Center, Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology, Jeju, Republic of Korea
- 2South Sea Environment Research Center, Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology, Geoje, Republic of Korea
- 3Department of Life Science, Woosuk University, Jinchoen, Republic of Korea
- 4Tropical & Subtropical Research Center, Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology, Jeju, Republic of Korea
- 5Department of Life Science, Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology, Busan, Republic of Korea
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Global ocean warming is known to disrupt interactions between corals and their symbiotic microbiota; however, the temporal sequence of structural and functional changes within microbial communities under thermal stress remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the microbial response of the soft coral Eleutherobia rubra following short-term heat exposure (26°C for 24 hours). Based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the overall taxonomic composition showed minimal change, with noticeable variations restricted to rare taxa. In contrast, functional predictions using PICRUSt2 revealed consistent and pronounced reorganization of metabolic potential, characterized by increased core metabolic activities and a decline in several stressassociated pathways. Beta diversity and LEfSe analyses indicated limited taxonomic shifts, but more distinct functional differentiation. Correlation analyses further suggested that specific microbial taxa may be driving these functional changes. Our findings suggest that in E. rubra, functional restructuring of the microbiome precedes taxonomic shifts during the early phase of heat-induced stress.
Keywords: Eleutherobia rubra, Thermal stress response, Taxonomic and Functional Profiling, Coral microbiome, Coral-microbe interaction
Received: 26 May 2025; Accepted: 05 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kim, Jo, Hwang, Oh, Yang, LIM and Woo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
JAE KYU LIM, Jeju Bio Research Center, Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology, Jeju, Republic of Korea
Seonock Woo, Department of Life Science, Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology, Busan, Republic of Korea
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