静止,或休眠,是对生物体减缓或停止生理功能的压力条件的反应。尽管大多数经历休眠的物种保持复杂的微生物群,关于休眠如何影响宿主的微生物组以及受宿主的微生物组的影响知之甚少,包括温带珊瑚Alstrangiapoculata。A.poculata的北部种群经历冬季静止。这里,我们在之前的高分辨率采样时间序列中表征了野生A.poculata微生物群,during,并在静止后使用16SrRNA对活性(RNA)和存在(DNA)微生物组进行基因测序。我们观察到在静止期间珊瑚微生物组的重组,这种重组在重新出现后仍然存在。进入静止状态后,珊瑚脱落了共生微生物,包括推定的病原体,建议移除这些类群,因为珊瑚停止正常运作。在静止期间和之后,与硝化相关的细菌和古细菌被富集,这表明静态微生物组可以通过向珊瑚和/或微生物提供硝酸盐来取代基本功能。总的来说,这项研究表明,与水龙珠静止相关的关键微生物群可能在休眠期的开始或出现以及微生物组组成的长期调节中起作用。A.poculata休眠的可预测性提供了一个理想的自然操纵系统,以进一步确定调节宿主微生物关联的因素。重要性使用高分辨率采样时间序列,这项研究是第一个证明在海洋生物中持续的微生物群落变化与静止(休眠),温带珊瑚Alstrangiapoculata.此外,在这个社区流动时期,假定的病原体和共生菌的脱落以及氨氧化细菌(亚硝基球菌)和古细菌(“Nitrosopumilus念珠菌”)的增强。我们的结果表明,静止是珊瑚微生物组可以重置的重要时期,脱落机会微生物,丰富有益伙伴的重建,包括那些在珊瑚动物不积极喂养时可能贡献硝酸盐的动物。我们建议这项工作提供了对海洋生物中微生物和宿主休眠反应相互作用的基础理解。
Quiescence, or dormancy, is a response to stressful conditions in which an organism slows or halts physiological functioning. Although most species that undergo dormancy maintain complex microbiomes, there is little known about how dormancy influences and is influenced by the host\'s microbiome, including in the temperate coral Astrangia poculata. Northern populations of A. poculata undergo winter quiescence. Here, we characterized wild A. poculata microbiomes in a high-resolution sampling time series before, during, and after quiescence using 16S rRNA gene sequencing on active (RNA) and present (DNA) microbiomes. We observed a restructuring of the coral microbiome during quiescence that persisted after reemergence. Upon entering quiescence, corals shed copiotrophic microbes, including putative pathogens, suggesting a removal of these taxa as corals cease normal functioning. During and after quiescence, bacteria and archaea associated with nitrification were enriched, suggesting that the quiescent microbiome may replace essential functions through supplying nitrate to corals and/or microbes. Overall, this study demonstrates that key microbial groups related to quiescence in A. poculata may play a role in the onset or emergence from dormancy and long-term regulation of the microbiome composition. The predictability of dormancy in A. poculata provides an ideal natural manipulation system to further identify factors that regulate host-microbial associations. IMPORTANCE Using a high-resolution sampling time series, this study is the first to demonstrate a persistent microbial community shift with quiescence (dormancy) in a marine organism, the temperate coral Astrangia poculata. Furthermore, during this period of community turnover, there is a shedding of putative pathogens and copiotrophs and an enhancement of the ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (Nitrosococcales) and archaea (\"Candidatus Nitrosopumilus\"). Our results suggest that quiescence represents an important period during which the coral microbiome can reset, shedding opportunistic microbes and enriching for the reestablishment of beneficial associates, including those that may contribute nitrate while the coral animal is not actively feeding. We suggest that this work provides foundational understanding of the interplay of microbes and the host\'s dormancy response in marine organisms.