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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Artículo científico |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
Marine environmental research
2026
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| Online Access: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42241961/ |
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Table of Contents:
- The vital role of epiphytic bacteria in tropical marine macrophytes: community structure differences between macroalgae and seagrass in Hainan Island, China. Wu, Yunquan Li, Jinling Fu, Sunlin Luo, Hongtian Wang, Wenbo Xie, Songguang Epiphytic bacteria play crucial roles in the ecological and biochemical processes of tropical macroalgae and seagrass, yet comparative studies on their community structure and functional profiles across these distinct hosts remain limited. Here, we characterized the epiphytic bacterial communities of two macroalgae (Sargassum polycystum, SP; Eucheuma gelatinae, EG) and one seagrass (Enhalus acoroides, EA) from Hainan Island, China, using 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing, and examined their relationships with environmental factors across the April-June growing season. Host identity was the dominant driver of community structure, independently explaining 52.1% of variation, followed by temporal (32.7%) and environmental (23.2%) components (PERMANOVA R = 0.753). EA harbored significantly higher alpha diversity (Shannon: 6.25 ± 0.16; Chao1: 4064.43 ± 683.15) than SP (Shannon: 4.57 ± 0.81) and EG (Shannon: 4.93 ± 1.25). Kistimonas dominated EG (22.21%) but was nearly absent from other hosts, likely reflecting its specialized degradation of sulfated polysaccharides of EG, whereas Erythrobacter was enriched in EA (5.57%). LEfSe identified 33 biomarkers (14 seawater, 19 marine macrophyte-associated), with only EG showing significant temporal fluctuations (CV of Shannon = 32.7% vs. 4.3% for EA), indicating that host endogenous physiology overrides external environmental variability in governing temporal stability. Environmental factors (temperature, DOC, TN, EC, and Chl-a) exhibited positive correlations with specific genera (Alteromonas, Paraburkholderia, Woeseia, AqS1, Variovorax) but played a secondary, modulating role. Predicted functional profiles were highly conserved across hosts (only 4 of 28 KEGG level-2 pathways differed significantly), suggesting broadly shared core metabolism. These findings underscore the primacy of host traits in structuring tropical epiphytic microbiomes and highlight the need for metatranscriptomic validation of predicted functions.