Vibrios dominate as culturable nitrogen-fixing bacteria of the Brazilian coral Mussismilia hispida

Autor(es)

Chimetto, Luciane A. ^[1] ; Brocchi, Marcelo ^[1] ; Thompson, Cristiane C. ^[2] ; Martins, Roberta C. R. ^[3] ; Ramos, Heloiza R. ^[3] ; Thompson, Fabiano L. ^[4]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Estadual Campinas, Inst Biol, Dept Microbiol & Imunol, Campinas - Brazil

^[2] Inst Oswaldo Cruz, BR-20001 Rio De Janeiro - Brazil

^[3] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Ciencias Biomed, Dept Microbiol, BR-05508 Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[4] Univ Fed Rio de Janeiro, Dept Genet, Inst Biol, BR-21941590 Rio De Janeiro - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: Systematic and Applied Microbiology; v. 31, n. 4, p. 312-319, Sept. 2008.
• Área do conhecimento: Ciências Biológicas - Microbiologia
• Citações Web of Science: 63
• Assunto(s): Bactérias fixadoras de nitrogênio Recifes de corais Mussismilia hispida

Resumo

Taxonomic characterization was performed on the putative N2-fixing microbiota associated with the coral species Mussismilia hispida, and with its sympatric species Palythoa caribaeorum, P. variabilis, and Zoanthus solanderi, off the coast of São Sebastião (São Paulo State, Brazil). The 95 isolates belonged to the Gammaproteobacteria according to the 16S rDNA gene sequences. In order to identify the isolates unambiguously, pyrH gene sequencing was carried out. The majority of the isolates (n ¼ 76) fell within the Vibrio core group, with the highest gene sequence similarity being towards Vibrio harveyi and Vibrio alginolyticus. Nineteen representative isolates belonging to V. harveyi (n ¼ 7), V. alginolyticus (n ¼ 8), V. campbellii (n ¼ 3), and V. parahaemolyticus (n ¼ 1) were capable of growing six successive times in nitrogen-free medium and some of them showed strong nitrogenase activity by means of the acetylene reduction assay (ARA). It was concluded that nitrogen fixation is a common phenotypic trait among Vibrio species of the core group. The fact that different Vibrio species can fix N2 might explain why they are so abundant in the mucus of different coral species. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 05/50387-2 - Biodiversidade, genômica comparativa e evolução na família Vibrionaceae (bactéria)
• Beneficiário: Luciane Alessandra Chimetto Tonon
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Programa Capacitação - Treinamento Técnico