Publication Date:
2024-03-28
Description:
Cycloclypeus carpenteri is one of the deepest living large
benthic foraminifera. It has an obligatory relationship with
diatom photosymbionts, and, in addition, houses a diverse
prokaryotic community. Variations in the eukaryotic and
prokaryotic endobiotic community composition might be
key in allowing Cycloclypeus to occur in low light environments. We assessed the variability of the prokaryotic and
eukaryotic communities associated with Cycloclypeus along
a depth gradient from 50 to 130 m at two locations in the
Federated States of Micronesia (Northwest Pacific) by
metabarcoding of the 18S V9 rRNA region for eukaryotes
and the 16S V3-V4 rRNA region for prokaryotes. We
observed a single foraminiferal operational taxonomic unit
(OTU), as well as a single dominant diatom OTU that was
abundant in all sequenced specimens. Both the prokaryotic
and the eukaryotic endobiotic communities (excluding the
dominant diatom) changed with water depth and associated
irradiance levels. We observed a distinct change in the prokaryotic community composition around 90–100 m water
depth at Pohnpei, equivalent to ∼1% surface radiation.
This change in microbial communities in the Cycloclypeus
holobiont suggests a potential role of the associated microbial communities in accommodating differences in (micro)-
habitat, although we cannot exclude that the prokaryote
community is to a large extent driven by their community
composition in the ambient environment.
Repository Name:
National Museum of Natural History, Netherlands
Type:
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Format:
application/pdf
Permalink
