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Microbes in Gorgonian and Soft Corals

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Symbiotic Microbiomes of Coral Reefs Sponges and Corals

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Abstract

Corals provide a structurally and environmentally complex array of habitats, supporting a broad microbial diversity that influences both host physiology and ultimately ecosystem processes. Many studies have indicated that microbial communities occupy a range of niches on corals, from within the surface mucus layer to on and within the coral tissue layers. Furthermore, a variety of studies have suggested that coral-associated microorganisms may be saprophytic or pathogenic or may provide other important functions for corals. In the previous studies, most of them mainly focused on the structure and diversity of microbes from gorgonian corals; however, information about the microbial diversity in soft corals is relatively limited. So in this chapter, we mainly summarized the structure and diversity of microbes from gorgonian corals.

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Acknowledgment

This chapter was modified from the paper published by our group in Microbial Ecology (Zhang et al. 2012; 64:617–627) and World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology (Zhang et al. 2013; 29:1107-1116). The related contents are reused with the permission.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio–resources and Ecology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China

    Xiao-Yong Zhang & Shu-Hua Qi

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  1. Xiao-Yong Zhang
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  2. Shu-Hua Qi
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Correspondence to Shu-Hua Qi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Biotechnology Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Zhiyong Li

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Zhang, XY., Qi, SH. (2019). Microbes in Gorgonian and Soft Corals. In: Li, Z. (eds) Symbiotic Microbiomes of Coral Reefs Sponges and Corals. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1612-1_6

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