| Abstract: | We investigated the bacterioplankton abundance,community composition and the associated Vibrio clades of natural seawater in Bohai Sea coastal waters.Seawater samples(10 L in triplicate)were collected at 0.5,3,and 5 m depths near the coastal aquaculture zone of the Bohai Sea on May 12,2016.Real-time PCR and 16 S rRNA gene amplicon high-throughput sequencing methods were employed by which 485 operational taxonomic units(OTUs)at a 97% sequence similarity level were generated.Gammaproteobacteria,Alphaproteobacteria,and Bacteroidetes were the most abundant groups,accounting for 49.5%,23.5%,and 18.9% ofthe total assemblage,respectively.Obvious variations in Pseudoalteromonas,Vibrio,and Octadecabacter,which were the most abundant genera,could be observed among different samples.Notably,the results of Vibrio-specific real-time PCR indicated that Vibrio had extremely high 16 S rRNA gene copy numbers.The 16 S rRNA gene sequencing results across all the samples also indicated that they occupied a large proportion of the total assemblage.Both the alpha diversity and major bacterioplankton group Pseudoalteromonas had significant correlations with the concentration of PO43-.Overall,studies on bacterioplankton communities with highly abundant Vibrio clades can provide interesting insight into the microbial function and health assessment of the Bohai Sea coastal ecosystem. |
