Microbiome Flexibility and Metabolomic Buffering in Octocorals During Environmental Acclimation

Octocorals are keystone reef species and sources of valuable bioactive compounds, yet the microbial dynamics underlying their acclimation to cultivation remain poorly characterized. We examined whether transplanted corals would show differential recovery trajectories between bacterial community and metabolome, and explored the potential role of microbial functional redundancy in shaping holobiont resilience. To address this, we analyzed a 19‑week multi‑omics time series dataset (16S rRNA sequencing, amino‑acid and lipid profiling) from transplanted octocorals, Lobophytum sp. and Sclerophytum sp., benchmarked against wild reef baselines. Bacterial communities diverged initially, converged by week 12, and re‑diverged by week 19, whereas metabolomes consistently converged toward wild norms despite species-specific variations. Integration of microbial and metabolomic data further revealed that microbe–metabolite associations were restructured across environments, consistent with environment-driven reorganization of holobiont interactions. These findings characterize the temporal dynamics of octocoral bacterial communities during acclimation and identify metabolomic stability as a complementary indicator of holobiont resilience, with implications for monitoring and optimizing octocoral cultivation.