| In order to reveal the diversity of culturable bacteria associated with corals, the spread plate methodwas used to isolate bacteria from 4 coral species samples and the surrounding seawater, and phylogenetic analysiswas carried out based on the 16S rRNA gene sequences. A total of 60 strains were isolated from Porites lutea, 61strains were isolated from Acropora sp., 54 strains were isolated from Galaxea sp., 20 strains were isolated fromPlatygyra sp., and 31 strains were isolated from seawater. Phylogenetic analysis showed that these isolates weredistributed in Actinobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. GeneraBrachybacterium, Microbacterium and Ruegeria were present in all four coral samples. Moreover, culturable coralassociatedbacteria groups were distinct from seawater. Among these isolates, the levels of 16S rRNA gene sequencesimilarity between 7 strains and their respective closest neighbours were lower than 97%. This result suggested thatthese isolates were candidate novel species. This is the first report on the diversity of culturable bacteria associatedwith corals in Luhuitou fringing reef, Sanya. The results indicate that culturable bacteria associated with scleractinian corals is abundant and diverse, and scleractinian corals are a promising source of novel bacteria species. |
