Diversity of bacterial community associated with marine ascidians from Bidong Island, Terengganu

Abstract

Microbial diversity has been well documented for many marine invertebrate taxa. However, little attention has been given to the examination of microbial–tunicates associations. In the present study, the microbial diversity of marine tunicates was assessed by using both culture-dependent and culture-independent method. Two species of tunicates from Clavelina sp. and Didemnum sp., have been collected from Bidong Island, Terengganu, during pre-monsoon (October) and post-monsoon seasons (May). Bacteria were isolated by serial dilutions and characterized based on colony and cell morphology.