Comparison studies of epiphytic microbial communities associated with different growth regions of Sargassum miyabei

Sargasum miyabei is one of the important species for constructing seaweed beds distributed in the intertidal zone of Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea of China, with high ecological and economic values. Recent studies have shown that the macroalgae associated microbiota are structured by host anatomy. However, the differences in the epiphytic microbial communities associated with different growth regions of S. miyabei are still poorly understood. In this study, the epiphytic microbial communities associated with different growth regions (including vesicles (SMV), blades (SMB), stalks (SMS), and holdfast (SMH)) of S. miyabei collected from the intertidal zone of Jingzi Bay were characterized using high-throughput sequencing technology, the natural seawater (W) was served as control.