A meta-analysis of 16S rRNA gene clone libraries from the polymicrobial black band disease of corals

Black band disease (BBD) is a polymicrobial disease affecting corals on reefs worldwide. Since 2002, researchers have constructed clone libraries from the BBD consortium using 16S rRNA gene primers targeting a variety of phyla. In the present study, a meta-analysis was conducted of published libraries from 2002 through the present that contain bacterial sequence data associated with individual clones and BBD samples. The libraries analyzed were from 87 BBD samples, collected from 16 species of scleractinian corals in 10 different geographic locations, and included 327 unique operational taxonomic units (OTUs). One OTU (cyanobacterial) was present in 62 (71%) samples, and three (one Cytophaga-Flavobacter-Bacteriodetes and two alphaproteobacterial) were present in 11 (13%) of the samples. The remaining 323 unique OTUs were present in <10% of the samples. The Alphaproteobacteria was the most diversely represented group. Analysis of clone libraries using nonmetric multidimensional scaling indicated strong regional specificity of BBD microbial populations, but limited host coral specificity. The results of this analysis support the hypotheses that: (1) a specific cyanobacterium may be the primary pathogen of BBD; (2) additional functional groups, required for BBD pathobiology, are represented by variable opportunistic species; and (3) opportunistic BBD microorganisms are primarily derived from the environment.