Microbiome changes in a stranding simulation of the holopelagic macroalgae Sargassum natans and Sargassum fluitans
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/Keywords:
Brown tide, Microbial community, Dysbiosis, High-throughput sequencing, Amplicon Sequence VariantsAbstract
Holopelagic Sargassum has been causing massive strandings on tropical Atlantic Ocean shorelines. Describing
the microbiome associated with Sargassum and how it changes after stranding is important to identify potential
microbial introductions to coastal environments, as well as sources of potential biotechnological resources. In this
study, stranding simulation exploratory experiments were conducted for S. fluitans III and S. natans VIII on shipboard
with minimum external influence. Samples for microbiome identification were collected just after removing healthy
Sargassum from the seawater (0 hr) and after 24 and 48 hrs of stranding simulation under environmental conditions.
The bacterial community was identified by sequencing 16S rRNA gene V3-V4 hypervariable regions, generating
a total of 1,565 Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs). Of those, 588 were shared between Sargassum species
and only 25 persisted throughout the stranding. Stranding also changed the dominance of Microtrichales and
Rhodobacterales orders at 0 hr to Alteromonadales and Vibrionales after 24 hrs of exposure, the latter representing
up to 92% of the relative abundance in the bacterial community. The increase in Vibrionales reinforces the need
to monitor stranding sites for any potential pathogenic bacteria. At the functional level, phototrophs were the main
group at 0 hr, shifting to chemoheterotrophs and fermentation within the first 24 hrs of Sargassum exposure to
air conditions. The fermentative groups native to Sargassum use stranded biomass as substrate for growth, and
therefore constitute the bacteria with higher biotechnological potential.
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