Microbial living materials promote coral larval settlement

The global decline of coral reefs calls for new strategies to rapidly restock coral populations and maintain ecosystem functions and services. Low recruitment success on degraded reefs hampers coral sexual propagation and leads to reduced genetic diversity and impaired reef resilience. Here, we introduce a Bacterial Reef Ink (Brink) to assist in coral larval settlement. Brink is a photopolymerized living material that can be rapidly applied to restoration substrates and has been formulated to cultivate two settlement-inducing bacterial strains (<i>Cellulophaga lytica</i> and <i>Thalassotalea euphylliae</i>). Settlement assays performed with broadcast spawning (<i>Montipora capitata</i>) and brooding (<i>Pocillopora acuta</i>) Indo-Pacific corals showed that Brink-coated substrates increased settlement >5-fold compared with uncoated control substrates. Brink can be applied as a flat coating or patterned using light-assisted 3D bioprinting, enabling diverse applications in reef restoration and engineering. This approach demonstrates the potential of functional living materials to enhance coral ecosystem engineering and support coral reef rehabilitation.

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Publication Details

Journal
PNAS Nexus
Published
2025-08-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf268
Primary Topic
Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Microbial living materials promote coral larval settlement

Van Wishingrad, Nina M. D. Schiettekatte, Christopher P. Jury, Joshua S. Madin et al.
PNAS Nexus
Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies
article

Microbial living materials promote coral larval settlement

Van Wishingrad, Nina M. D. Schiettekatte, Christopher P. Jury, Joshua S. Madin, Claudia Tatiana Galindo-Martínez, Josh Hancock, Siddhartha Verma, Shaochen Chen, Sean H Mahaffey, Daniel Wangpraseurt, Mert Gökdepe, Joshua D. Voss, Madeleine M. Hardt, Mollie Asbury, Ann Marie Hulver, Claire E. Bardin, Michael G.‏ Hadfield, Andréa G. Grottoli, Shannon Dixon, Souma Kundu, Marnie L. Freckelton, Jon Chase, Samapti Kundu, Joshua R. Hancock, Allison M. Klein, Claire E. Lewis, Martín Tresguerres, Ben Jones, Anna Maria Hill Mikkelsen, Kristian McDonald, Jessica Reichert, Crawford Drury, Christina Dillon, Hendrikje Jorissen, Audrey Lebon, Julie Dinasquet, Stefan Kolle, Kira Morgan Hughes, Océane Boulais, Natalie Levy, Charlotte White, Robert John Toonen, Lindsey Badder, Zahra Karimi, Carlo Caruso, Ian N. Robertson, Zhenhua Huang, Daniel W. H. Schar, Brady Halvorson, Alejandro Alvaro, Aaron M. Thode, John Yeh, Yazhi Sun, Kun–Woo Chun, William Hicks, Josh Levy, Isabel Flores, Vanessa De La Garza, Aricia Argyris, Mark Aruda, Ayrton Medina-Rodriguez, Marion Chapeau, Chris R Suchocki, Joshua Kualani, Richard Argall
article en

Abstract

The global decline of coral reefs calls for new strategies to rapidly restock coral populations and maintain ecosystem functions and services. Low recruitment success on degraded reefs hampers coral sexual propagation and leads to reduced genetic diversity and impaired reef resilience. Here, we introduce a Bacterial Reef Ink (Brink) to assist in coral larval settlement. Brink is a photopolymerized living material that can be rapidly applied to restoration substrates and has been formulated to cultivate two settlement-inducing bacterial strains (<i>Cellulophaga lytica</i> and <i>Thalassotalea euphylliae</i>). Settlement assays performed with broadcast spawning (<i>Montipora capitata</i>) and brooding (<i>Pocillopora acuta</i>) Indo-Pacific corals showed that Brink-coated substrates increased settlement >5-fold compared with uncoated control substrates. Brink can be applied as a flat coating or patterned using light-assisted 3D bioprinting, enabling diverse applications in reef restoration and engineering. This approach demonstrates the potential of functional living materials to enhance coral ecosystem engineering and support coral reef rehabilitation.

PNAS NexusVol. 4(9)
University of Hawaii System (US), Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US), University of California San Diego (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 76%
Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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