ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbial Symbioses
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1550446
Unraveling bacterial composition of a coral and bio-eroding sponge competing in a marginal coral environment
Provisionally accepted
- 1Technology Innovation Institute (TII), Masdar City, United Arab Emirates
- 2National Institute of Oceanography, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Dona Paula, Goa, India
- 3University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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The newly described bioeroding sponge Cliona thomasi, part of the Cliona viridis complex, is contributing to coral decline in the central eastern Arabian Sea, the West Coast of India. While its morphological and allelopathic mechanisms in coral invasion are well investigated, the role of its microbial communities in spatial competition is underexplored. This study focuses on the coral Turbinaria mesenterina and sponge Cliona thomasi both known for their distinct symbiotic associations with Symbiodiniaceae. A 16S rRNA V3-V4 amplicon next-generation sequencing approach followed by processing through DADA2 algorithm was used to analyze the bacterial composition. The results showed higher bacterial richness and diversity in coral samples, identifying 30 distinct phyla, compared to 14 in sponge samples. The coral samples were dominated by Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Cyanobacteria, Planctomycetes, Chloroflexi, and Patescibacteria, while Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Planctomycetes, and Actinobacteria were dominant in the sponge. Enrichment analysis revealed higher dominance of Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Dadabacteria, Firmicutes, Fusobacteriota, and Patescibacteria in the coral samples, while the sponge samples showed enrichment for Cyanobacteria, Planctomycetes, and Bdellovibrionota. Beta-diversity analysis (PERMANOVA and nMDS) showed significant differences, with an average dissimilarity of 81.44% between sponge and coral samples (SIMPER). These differences highlight variations in microbial profiles between sponges and corals, competing in the same vulnerable environment. Exploring the microbiome aspect therefore, may elucidate physiological and ecological functions of the holobiont while also representing as health status biomarker for corals, supporting their conservation.
Keywords: Nearshore reef, Coral eroding sponge, bacterial diversity, ampliconsequencing, Indian Ocean
Received: 23 Dec 2024; Accepted: 08 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mote, De, Nanajkar and Gupta. 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:
Mandar Nanajkar, National Institute of Oceanography, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Dona Paula, 403004, Goa, India
Vishal Gupta, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, 2007, New South Wales, Australia
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