Coral microbiomes as reservoirs of unknown genomic and biosynthetic diversity
Abstract
Abstract Coral reefs are marine biodiversity hotspots that provide a wide range of ecosystem services 1 . They are reservoirs of bioactive metabolites, many produced by microorganisms associated with reef invertebrate hosts 2 . However, for the keystone species of coral reefs—the reef-building corals—we still lack a systematic assessment of their microbially encoded biosynthetic potential and the molecular resources at stake due to the alarming decline in reef biodiversity. Here we analysed microbial genomes reconstructed from 820 reef-building coral samples of three representative coral genera collected at 99 reefs across 32 islands throughout the Pacific Ocean ( Tara Pacific expedition) 3 . By contextualizing our analyses with the microbiomes of other reef species, we found that only 10% of the 4,224 microbial species and less than 1% of the 645 species exclusively identified in Tara Pacific samples had genomic information available. Furthermore, the biosynthetic potential of reef-building coral microbiomes rivalled or surpassed that of traditional natural product sources such as sponges. Among the biosynthetically rich bacteria in the reef microbiome, we identified new groups of Acidobacteriota that encode previously unknown enzymology, in turn opening promising avenues for functional protein engineering. Together, this study underscores the importance of conserving coral reefs as vital reservoirs of molecular diversity.
Article Details
Authors (51)
Fabienne Wiederkehr
Lucas Paoli
Daniel Richter
Dora Racunica
Hans-Joachim Ruscheweyh
Martin Sperfeld
James O’Brien
Samuel Miravet-Verde
Alena B. Streiff
Jessica Ransome
Clara Chepkirui
Taylor Priest
Anna Sintsova
Guillem Salazar
Kalia S. I. Bistolas
Teresa Sawyer
Karine Labadie
Kim-Isabelle Mayer
Aude Perdereau
Maggie M. Reddy
Clémentine Moulin
Emilie Boissin
Guillaume Bourdin
Juliette Cailliau
Guillaume Iwankow
Julie Poulain
Sarah Romac
Colomban de Vargas
J. Michel Flores
Paola Furla
Eric Gilson
Stéphane Pesant
Stephanie Reynaud
Didier Zoccola
Serge Planes
Denis Allemand
Sylvain Agostini
Chris Bowler
Eric Douville
Didier Forcioli
Pierre E. Galand
Fabien Lombard
Pedro H. Oliveira
Olivier P. Thomas
Rebecca Vega Thurber
Romain Troublé
Christian R. Voolstra
Patrick Wincker
Maren Ziegler
Jörn Piel
Shinichi Sunagawa