Identification of Candidate Coral Pathogens on White Band Disease-Infected Staghorn Coral.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial diseases affecting scleractinian corals pose an enormous threat to the health of coral reefs, yet we still have a limited understanding of the bacteria associated with coral diseases. White band disease is a bacterial disease that affects the two Caribbean acroporid corals, the staghorn coral Acropora cervicornis and the elkhorn coral A. palmate. Species of Vibrio and Rickettsia have both been identified as putative WBD pathogens. Here we used Illumina 16S rRNA gene sequencing to profile the bacterial communities associated with healthy and diseased A. cervicornis collected from four field sites during two different years. We also exposed corals in tanks to diseased and healthy (control) homogenates to reduce some of the natural variation of field-collected coral bacterial commun

SUBMITTER: Gignoux-Wolfsohn SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4524643 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature