Bacteriophages gp23 associated with coral black band disease. Phage gp23

Marine disease research has been focused on bacterium-centred approaches, while the role of viruses has been paid scant attention. In this study, we examine the diversity of prokaryotes and T4-bacteriophages associated with a worldwide spread coral disease, black band disease (BBD), which targets a majority of scleractinian coral species. We use next generation amplicon sequencing to identify 14 candidate bacteriophage OTUs that show temporal abundance patterns correlating with the presence of BBD and may be involved in the progression and onset of BBD.