Short-Term Exposure to Sterile Seawater Reduces Bacterial Community Diversity in the Sea Anemone, Exaiptasia diaphana

The global decline of coral reefs heightens the need to understand how corals may persist under changing environmental conditions. Restructuring coral-associated bacterial community, either through natural or assisted strategies, has been suggested as a means adaptation climate change. A low complexity microbial system would facilitate testing efficacy restructuring strategies. We used model organism for corals, Exaiptasia diaphana , and determined that short-term (3 weeks) exposure filter-sterilized seawater conditions alone reduced microbiome. Metabarcoding V5–V6 region 16S rRNA gene revealed alpha diversity was approximately halved in anemones reared compared controls unfiltered composition (beta diversity) differed significantly between two. By reducing E. microbiome, development strategies such probiotics, is more feasible.