The diversity of the bacterial communities associated with the azooxanthellate hexacoral Cirrhipathes lutkeni.

This study examined the symbiotic microbiota of the hexacoral Cirrhipathes lutkeni using traditional plate culture, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and 16S rDNA characterization. FISH counts for the whole coral (holobiont) showed a major presence of gamma-Proteobacteria (22%) and Actinobacteria (19%), followed by alpha-Proteobacteria (14%), Firmicutes (9%), Cytophaga-Flavobacterium (7%), beta-Proteobacteria (6%) and Chloroflexi (2%). In contrast to the diversity observed by FISH, plate cultures were found to be selective for gamma-Proteobacteria (22 cultures) with the exception of an Actinobacterium.