The microbiome of disease resistant and susceptible Acropora sp.

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the microbiomes of corals that were tested for disease resilience and susceptibility in nursery-reared Caribbean Acropora spp. Diseased coral were grafted onto healthy fragments and diseased fragments may have harbored distinct pathogens. In 2017, three histological samples were examined that suggested that disease fragments were causing rapid tissue loss (RTL). To identify potential disease agents and identify bacteria associated with resilience we used 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing to evaluate these data.