Dynamics of bacterial community structure during blooms of Cochlodinium polykrikoides (Gymnodiniales, Dinophyceae) in Korean coastal waters

Recent studies of dinoflagellates have reported that blooms can be closely related to the characteristics of the associated bacteria, but studies of the correlation between the toxic dinoflagellate, Cochlodinium polykrikoides and their associated bacterial community composition has not been explored. To understand this correlation, changes in bacterial community structure through the evolution of a C. polykrikoides bloom in Korean coastal waters via clone library analysis were investigated. Although there were no apparent changes in physio-chemical factors during the onset of the C. polykrikoides bloom, the abundance of bacteria bourgeoned in parallel with C. polykrikoides densities. Alpha-, gamma-proteobacteria and Flavobacteria were found to be dominant phyletic groups during C. polykrikoides blooms. The proportion of gamma-proteobacteria was lower (11.8%) during peak of the bloom period compared to the post-bloom period (26.2%). In contrast, alpha-proteobacteria increased in dominance during blooms. Among the alpha-proteobacteria, members of Rhodobacterales abruptly increased from 38% of the alpha-proteobacteria before the bloom to 74% and 56% during the early bloom and peak bloom stages, respectively. Moreover, multiple sites concurrently hosting C. polykrikoides blooms also contained high portions of Rhodobacterales and principal component analysis (PCA) demonstrated that Rhodobacterales had a positive, significant correlation with C. polykrikoides abundances (p ≤ 0.01, Pearson correlation coefficients). Collectively, this study reveals the specific clades of bacteria that increase (Rhodobacterales) and decrease (gamma-proteobacteria) in abundance C. polykrikoides during blooms.