Coral reef invertebrates and their associated microbial communities

Host-controlled microbial community structuring can often lead to patterns of coevolution and vertical inheritance. In a community of many bacteria with no a priori hypotheses of symbiosis, taxa that display patterns of coevolution with their hosts are more likely to be relevant to host fitness. This project will 1) reveal the complexity of marine invertebrate sysmbioses through elucidating patterns of host/microbiome associations; 2) characterize the influence of microbiome on the biodiversity, distribution, adaptation and health of marine invertebrates. We propose to sample 100 invertebrate taxa selected based on their ecological importance and role in reef ecosystem function. Selected species will focus on scleractinian coral species, the subclass of Octocorallia, members of the Porifera and phylum Mollusca. The microbiome of each marine invertebrate will be characterized to establish diversity patterns. The associated metabolic potentials of these communities will be assessed through metagenomic sequence analysis and the active component of the microbial community members addressed through metatranscriptomic analysis.