Bacterial Communities Shed by Montastraea cavernosa Coral Fragments into Filtered Seawater Mesocosms

The files released here are the raw 16S rRNA gene amplicon files from six 0.22-micron size fractions of tangential flow filtration-concentrated microbial communities (Mcav17, Mcav18, McH-101, McH-103, McD-57, and McD-58) derived from mesocosms consisting of filtered seawater in which either healthy or diseased fragments of Montastraea cavernosa had been incubated, as well as sequence files of a mock community and extraction kit blank. The coral fragments were collected between April 2018 and November 2020, from various locations throughout the Florida Keys. Mesocosms were set up by placing the coral fragments into filtered seawater for 4-5 days and then the fragments were removed so the water could be processed. Mesocosms were inoculated at the Smithsonian Marine Station, in Fort Pierce, Florida during two separate trips: one in October 2019 and the other in November 2020. The mock community was sequenced in order to assess any biases in the sequencing technology, while the extraction blank was sequenced in order to identify any contaminants in the DNA extraction kit.