Culturable heterotrophic bacteria associated with healthy and bleached scleractinian Madracis decactis and the fireworm Hermodice carunculata from the remote St. Peter and St. Paul Archipelago, Brazil.

ABSTRACT

We report on the first characterization of the culturable heterotrophic bacteria of the scleractinian Madracis decactis. In addition, we characterized the culturable bacteria associated with the fireworm Hermodice carunculata, observed predating partially bleached coral colonies. Our study was carried out in the remote St. Peter and St. Paul Archipelago (SPSPA), Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Brazil. We constituted a 403 isolates collection and subsequently characterized it by means of pyrH and 16S rRNA partial sequences. We identified Photobacterium, Bacillus, and Vibrio species as members of the culturable microbiota of healthy M. decactis. V. campbellii, V. harveyi, V. communis, and V. maritimus were the most commonly found Vibrio species in healthy corals, representing more than 60 % of all vibrio isolates. Most of the vibrios isolated from the fireworm's tissues (n = 143; >90 %) were identified as V. shiloi. However, we did not recover V. shiloi from bleached M. decactis. Instead, we isolated V. communis, a novel Photobacterium species, Bacillus, Kocuria, and Pseudovibrio, suggesting a possible role of other facultative anaerobic bacteria and/or environmental features (such as water quality) in the onset of bleaching in SPSPA's M. decactis.