Huang, Hui

AbstractCoral reefs are ecologically significant habitats. Coral-algal symbiosis confers ecological success on coral reefs and coral-microbial symbiosis is also vital to coral reefs. However, current understanding of coral-microbial symbiosis on a genomic scale is largely unknown. Here we report a potential microbial symbiont in corals revealed by metagenomics-based genomic study. Microbial cells in coral were enriched for metagenomic analysis and a high-quality draft genome of “Candidatus Prosthecochloris korallensis” was recovered by metagenome assembly and genome binning. Phylogenetic analysis shows “Ca. P. korallensis” belongs to the Prosthecochloris clade and is clustered with two Prosthecochloris clones derived from Caribbean corals. Genomic analysis reveals “Ca. P. korallensis” has potentially important ecological functions including anoxygenic photosynthesis, carbon fixation via the reductive tricarboxylic acid (rTCA) cycle, nitrogen fixation, and sulfur oxidization. Core metabolic pathway analysis suggests “Ca. P. korallensis” is a green sulfur bacterium capable of photoautotrophy or mixotrophy. Potential host-microbial interaction reveals a symbiotic relationship: “Ca. P. korallensis” might provide organic and nitrogenous nutrients to its host and detoxify sulfide for the host; the host might provide “Ca. P. korallensis” with an anaerobic environment for survival, carbon dioxide and acetate for growth, and hydrogen sulfide as an electron donor for photosynthesis.

Summary Multicellular magnetotactic prokaryotes ( MMPs ) are a peculiar group of magnetotactic bacteria, each comprising approximately 10–100 cells of the same phylotype. Two morphotypes of MMP have been identified, including several species of globally distributed spherical mulberry‐like MMPs (s‐ MMPs ), and two species of ellipsoidal pineapple‐like MMPs (e‐ MMPs ) from C hina ( Q ingdao and R ongcheng cities). We recently collected e‐ MMPs from M editerranean S ea sediments ( S ix‐ F ours‐les‐ P lages) and D rummond I sland, in the S outh C hina S ea. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the MMPs from S ix‐ F ours‐les‐ P lages and the previously reported e‐ MMP C andidatus   M agnetananas rongchenensis have 98.5% sequence identity and are the same species, while the MMPs from D rummond I sland appear to be a novel species, having > 7.1% sequence divergence from the most closely related e‐ MMP , C andidatus   M agnetananas tsingtaoensis. Identification of the novel species expands the distribution of e‐ MMPs to T ropical Z one. Comparison of nine physical and chemical parameters revealed that sand grain size and the content of inorganic nitrogen (nitrate, ammonium and nitrite) in the sediments from R ongcheng C ity and S ix‐ F ours‐les‐ P lages were similar, and lower than found for sediments from the other two sampling sites. The results of the study reveal broad diversity and wide distribution of e‐ MMPs .