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Changes in Epiphytic Bacterial Communities of Intertidal Seaweeds Modulated by Host, Temporality, and Copper Enrichment

  • Microbiology of Aquatic Systems
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Abstract

This study reports on the factors involved in regulating the composition and structure of bacterial communities epiphytic on intertidal macroalgae, exploring their temporal variability and the role of copper pollution. Culture-independent, molecular approaches were chosen for this purpose and three host species were used as models: the ephemeral Ulva spp. (Chlorophyceae) and Scytosiphon lomentaria (Phaeophyceae) and the long-living Lessonia nigrescens (Phaeophyceae). The algae were collected from two coastal areas in Northern Chile, where the main contrast was the concentration of copper in the seawater column resulting from copper-mine waste disposals. We found a clear and strong effect in the structure of the bacterial communities associated with the algal species serving as host. The structure of the bacterial communities also varied through time. The effect of copper on the structure of the epiphytic bacterial communities was significant in Ulva spp., but not on L. nigrescens. The use of 16S rRNA gene library analysis to compare bacterial communities in Ulva revealed that they were composed of five phyla and six classes, with approximately 35 bacterial species, dominated by members of Bacteroidetes (Cytophaga-Flavobacteria-Bacteroides) and α-Proteobacteria, in both non-polluted and polluted sites. Less common groups, such as the Verrucomicrobiae, were exclusively found in polluted sites. This work shows that the structure of bacterial communities epiphytic on macroalgae is hierarchically determined by algal species > temporal changes > copper levels.

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Acknowledgments

This study is part of the research program FONDAP 1501 0001 funded by CONICYT, to the Center for Advanced Studies in Ecology & Biodiversity (CASEB) Program 7. Additional support was provided by the Millennium Scientific Initiative through the Millennium Nucleus EMBA grant P/04-007-F; the grants Marine Genomics-CONICYT, FUNDACION ANDES (C-13851), PBCT RED-12, and ICA grant (to JAC). M.B. Hengst was supported by a CONICYT Ph.D. fellowship. We deeply thank to two anonymous referees for their contributions to improve an early version of this paper. Thanks to Jessica Beltran, Carolina Camus, and Alejandra González for their assistance in the field.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Antofagasta Institute of Renewable Resources and Departamento de Acuicultura, Universidad de Antofagasta, Campus Coloso, Antofagasta, Chile

    Martha B. Hengst

  2. Centro de Bioinnovación de Antofagasta (CBIA), Universidad de Antofagasta, Antofagasta, Chile

    Martha B. Hengst

  3. Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Martha B. Hengst, Santiago Andrade & Juan A. Correa

  4. Center for Advanced Studies in Ecology and Biodiversity (CASEB), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Santiago Andrade, Bernardo González & Juan A. Correa

  5. Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencia, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile

    Bernardo González

Authors
  1. Martha B. Hengst
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  2. Santiago Andrade
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  3. Bernardo González
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  4. Juan A. Correa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bernardo González.

Electronic supplementary material

Figure S1

Average values of Richness (up) and Shannon diversity indexes (low) for epiphytic bacterial communities of Ulva, Lessonia, and Scytosiphon, obtained from T-RFLP profiles with MspI endonuclease digestion. The asterisk indicates significant differences between richness values for communities from Scytosiphon with respect to Ulva and Lessonia for algae from Palito 200, obtained with a posteriori Tukey’s test. Diamond, Ulva; square, Lessonia; and triangle, Scytosiphon. PA, Pan de Azúcar; Z, Zenteno; C, Canal; P, Palito 200; and A, Achurra (DOC 31.5 kb)

Table S1

One-way ANOSIM results for comparisons between different sampling periods and localities, from richness, diversity, and evenness values obtained from T-RFLP data digested with MspI, for epiphytic communities associated to Ulva and Lessonia (DOC 38.0 kb)

Table S2

Summary of the two-way crossed ANOSIM test based on Bray–Curtis similarity matrices derived from abundance data square-root transformed to determine the effect of month and copper level on the community structure of bacterial epiphytes associated with Ulva and Lessonia, during 2005 and 2006 (DOC 31.0 kb)

Table S3

Comparisons of epiphytic communities of Lessonia from pristine and copper-polluted sites. Data from T-RFLP were obtained by digestions with HhaI and MspI, and similarity values between sites were obtained with square-root transformed data by SIMPER analysis (DOC 42.0 kb)

Table S4

T-RFs contribution to similarity of epiphytic community structure of Lessonia in pristine and copper-polluted sites, obtained by SIMPER analysis (DOC 80.5 kb)

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Hengst, M.B., Andrade, S., González, B. et al. Changes in Epiphytic Bacterial Communities of Intertidal Seaweeds Modulated by Host, Temporality, and Copper Enrichment. Microb Ecol 60, 282–290 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-010-9647-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-010-9647-0

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