Within-colony microbial response of three species with different susceptibility to Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease

Authors

Aguayo-Leyva, J. E., Arriaga-Pinon, Z. P., Alvarez-Filip, L., Banaszak, A. T., Paz-Garcia, D. A., Garcia-Maldonado, J. Q.

Abstract

Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), a coral pathology with rapid tissue loss and high mortality rate has affected nearly 30 species with a variable degree of susceptibility across species. It has been suggested that SCTLD has a systemic effect within coral colonies, but little is known about within-colony changes of the microbial communities associated with this disease. Here we evaluate the microbial shifts within coral colonies: apparently healthy tissue and SCTLD tissue. The study was done in three species following a gradient of susceptibility to the disease: Dendrogyra cylindrus (Dcyl, n = 11) and Pseudodiploria strigosa (Pstr, n = 6) two highly susceptible species; and Orbicella faveolata (Ofav, n = 8), a moderately affected species. 16S rRNA Illumina sequences analysis showed differential microbial community structure within two species (Dcyl, p = 0.01, Pstr, p = 0.01) but not for Ofav (p = 0.28). Taxonomic profiles of bacterial groups were species-specific in SCTLD tissue, but healthy tissue shared similarities between species including Pirelullales, NB1-J and SAR324. Our results reveal that the microbial communities' effects associated to the disease follow a similar pattern to the species susceptibility to SCTLD, providing new insights into the disease dynamics in the Mexican Caribbean.

Preprint server: bioRxiv
The authors list and abstract were imported from bioRxiv on 11 Jun 2026.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this preprint? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.