Community structures of actively growing bacteria stimulated by coral mucus

•This study determined that actively growing bacteria were stimulated by coral mucus.•The actively growing bacteria originated from seawater and not from the mucus.•Coral mucus can alter community structures of actively growing bacteria in seawater.•Coral mucus can generate an organic matter flux specific to a reef system.

Coral mucus influences the composition and abundance of bacteria in the surrounding seawater. In this study, the phylogenetic affiliations of actively growing bacteria (AGB) in seawater supplemented with the mucus of Acropora sp. during a 24-h incubation period were determined. For this purpose, bromodeoxyuridine magnetic-beads immunocapture and PCR-DGGE (BUMP-DGGE) analysis was used. The coral mucus contained higher concentrations of particulate organic carbon and nitrogen and exhibited higher bacterial abundance than seawater did, and the organic matter and bacteria varied dramatically during the incubation. BUMP-DGGE analysis showed that the AGB stimulated by the coral mucus also varied during the incubation. The bulk of the active growers originated from seawater and not the mucus. However, not all of the bacterial phylotypes in seawater could use the coral mucus as a suitable growth substrate. Cluster analysis revealed that the AGB community structures identified across the incubation period were considerably different in seawater supplemented with coral mucus as compared with those in coral mucus. In total, 12 phylotypes of AGB were identified, and these belonged to Alphaproteobacteria (Rhodobacterales 5 phylotypes), Gammaproteobacteria (Oceanospirillales 3 phylotypes, Vibrionales 1 phylotype, Alteromonadales 1 phylotype), and Bacteroidetes (Flavobacteriales 2 phylotypes). In the coral mucus, phylotypes belonging to Oceanospirillales appeared only at the beginning of the incubation, whereas those belonging to Rhodobacterales appeared only in the late phase of the incubation. Thus, coral mucus can alter the AGB community structure and create an organic matter flux that is specific to a reef environment.