Program

Corals are associated with diverse and complex microbial assemblages.These bacteria provide essential biological functions within coral holobiont. Diazotrophs have an important role in generating biologically usable forms of nitrogen within the coral and their abundance and structure are strongly influenced by anthropogenic activity and ecological conditions. In this study, we will investigate  the variability of Nitrogen-fixing bacteria associated with P. damicornis coral in conditions of increased temperature seawater by pyrosequencing of the nifH gene. The variability of nifH gene expression is measured by real-time PCR. The diazotrophic bacterial communities are significantly different related to environmental conditions and coral health status.This study provides broad insight into the improvement of the fitness of corals during thermal stress.