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Vol. 51 No. 8, 2012
Bacterial Distribution in the Epidermis and Mucus of the Coral Euphyllia glabrescens by CARD-FISH
Hsiu-Hui Chiu1, Andreas Mette2, Jia-Ho Shiu1,3,4, and Sen-Lin Tang1,3,*
1Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 115, Taiwan. E-mail:hsiuhui.chiu@gmail.com
2Software Development, Reichenbergstraße 5, Braunschweig 38114, Germany
3Taiwan International Graduate Program on Molecular Biology and Agriculture Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan
4Graduate Institute of Biotechnology, National Chun-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan
Hsiu-Hui Chiu, Andreas Mette, Jia-Ho Shiu, and Sen-Lin Tang (2012) The
distribution of bacteria in coral mucus has long been poorly
understood, although most coral-associated bacteria were suggested to
dwell in the mucus and epidermis of corals. We hypothesized that
different bacterial groups have different distribution patterns in the
mucus and epidermis. To test this hypothesis, we overcame
technical difficulties of mucus preservation during sample preparation
and inspected the distributions of 2 dominant coralassociated bacterial
groups, the alphaproteobacteria and gammaproteobacteria, in the mucus
and epidermis of the coral, Euphyllia glabrescens,
collected from Kenting and Ludao (also known as Green I.) in southern
Taiwan. We used catalyzed reporter deposition-fluorescence in situ
hybridization to detect the location of the bacteria in the mucus and
epidermis, and results showed that the 2 bacterial groups had different
distribution patterns in the coral. Alphaproteobacteria were
frequently distributed at the interface between the mucus and
epidermis, while gammaproteobacteria were only detected in the
gastrodermis and rarely observed in the mucus or epidermis. This
study provides the 1st direct evidence that different bacterial groups
have habitat specificity in coral mucus.
Key words: Coral mucus-associated bacteria, CARD-FISH.
*Correspondence: Tel: 886-2-27893863. Fax: 886-2-27890844. E-mail:sltang@gate.sinica.edu.tw
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