Temperature-driven shifts in the epibiotic bacterial community composition of the brown macroalga Fucus vesiculosus

The thallus surface of the brown macroalga Fucus vesiculosus is covered by a specific biofilm community. This biofilm supposedly plays an important role in the interaction between host and environment. So far, we know little about compositional or functional shifts of this epibiotic bacterial community under changing environmental conditions. In this study, the response of the microbiota to different temperatures with respect to cell density and community composition was analyzed by nonculture-based methods (denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and 454 pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene). Redundancy analysis showed that despite high variability among host individuals temperature accounted for 20% of the variation in the bacterial community composition, whereas cell density did not differ between groups. Across all samples, 4341 bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at a 97% similarity level were identified. Eight percent of OTUs were significantly correlated with low, medium, and high temperatures. Notably, the family Rhodobacteraceae increased in relative abundance from 20% to 50% with increasing temperature. OTU diversity (evenness and richness) was higher at 15 °C than at the lower and higher temperatures. Considering their known and presumed ecological functions for the host, change in the epibacterial community may entail shifts in the performance of the host alga.