Viral communities associated with algal/coral interactions

Coral competition with benthic algae has been shown to alter the bacterial communities associated with the coral. Certain groups of algae lead to an increase in potential pathogens, potentially shifting the competitive advantage away from the coral and to the alga, while others do not. Here we investigate the changes in the viral communities associated with corals competing with different types of benthic algae to determine if similar changes occur in the viral component of the coral holobiont. We expect that algae that cause stress to corals will lead to the induction of eukaryotic viruses (e.g. infecting coral and/or zooxanthellae) and pathogen-associated phage, while algae that are inferior competitors to corals will not.