Geographically driven differences in microbiomes of Acropora cervicornis originating from different regions of Florida's Coral Reef

The objective of the present study was to characterize and compare the microbiomes of apparently healthy Acropora cervicornis genotypes that were originally collected from different regions of Floridas Coral Reef and sampled after residing within Mote Marine Laboratory's in situ nursery near Looe Key, FL for multiple years. By using 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing, we described the microbial communities of 74 A. cervicornis genotypes originating in the Lower Florida Keys n=40 genotypes, the Middle Florida Keys n=15 genotypes, and the Upper Florida Keys n=19 genotypes.