Parrotfish predation drives distinct microbial communities in reef-building corals

A number of marine invertebrates and fishes were suspected to vector and or facilitate the enrichment of microbes in corals. In this study, we investigated whether the widely distributed parrotfish Chlorurus spilurus could vector and/or facilitate the enrichment of bacteria in the coral species Porites lobata. We used a combination of mesocosm and field experiments to explore the potential for C. spilurus to alter coral microbiomes. We first tested the effects of C. spilurus (7 individuals) predation on P. lobata microbiomes in mesocosm and collected samples of C. spilurus mouths (using swabs) and coral tissues (control and predated corals) for 16S rRNA gene amplification at 2 timepoints (T0 and T48h). For the field experiment, we targeted a back reef area in Moorea (French Polynesia) and collected mouth swabs from 10 individuals of C. spilurus as well as tissue samples of P. lobata from colonies that were naturally bitten by parrotfish and colonies that were not altered at all.