Metagenomic characterization of archaeal and bacterial communities associated with coral, sediment, and seawater in a coral reef ecosystem of Phu Quoc island, Vietnam

Recent advancements in metagenomics, particularly in the studies of conservative 16S rRNA sequences, have significantly accelerated our understanding of the relationship between corals and their associated microbial communities. While bacteria are known to be closely linked with corals, there is limited understanding of the connections between archaea and corals. Unlike previous 16S rRNA studies conducted in similar tropical coral reef ecosystems, we analyzed both the archaeal and bacterial communities associated with Acropora sp. and Lobophyllia sp. corals, as well as the surrounding sediment and water columns in Phu Quoc Island, Kien Giang Province, Vietnam.