[CDHC] new publications

Cheryl Woodley cheryl.woodley at noaa.gov
Fri Jul 6 18:14:51 EDT 2007


Hi CDHC List Members,
As a means of encouraging more information and scientific discussion on 
the CDHC list, I thought it may be helpful if you as members would post 
a notification of your new papers with at least the citation and perhaps 
even the abstract for those papers that are just hitting the press or as 
an early notification for papers that are due to be coming out soon....

To start things off, Dr. Laurie Richardson (FIU) has offered up several 
of her recent papers that are just out, as an example. (and offered to 
help if you have trouble obtaining the pdf's, by contacting her 
directly). The citations and abstracts are pasted below.

I encourage each of you to make use of the list serve to share your new 
findings with the group as well.

Best Regards,
Cheryl

Here is 3 of Laurie's papers to kick things off.....


*Black Band Disease Microbial Community Variation on Corals in Three 
Regions of the Wider Caribbean*

Joshua D. Voss, DeEtta K. Mills, Jamie L. Myers, Elizabeth R. Remily and 
Laurie L. Richardson
Microbial Ecology
Published online: 28 March 2007, preprint

Abstract: Black band disease (BBD) is a pathogenic consortium of 
microorganisms that primarily affects massive framework-building 
scleractinian corals on reefs worldwide. There has been considerable 
debate concerning the microbial community composition of BBD. The aim of 
this study was to utilize microbial profiling to assess overall patterns 
of variation in the BBD bacterial community with respect to geographic 
location, host coral species, time, and nutrient regime. Length 
heterogeneity polymerase chain reaction (LH-PCR) was employed to 
differentiate BBD communities based on the natural variation in the 
sequence lengths within hypervariable domains of the 16S rRNA gene. 
Analysis of LH-PCR profiles of 97 BBD samples using multivariate 
ordination methods and analysis of similarity revealed significant 
clustering with respect to geographic region when comparing BBD sampled 
from reefs near Lee Stocking Island in the Bahamas’ Exuma Chain, the 
Northern Florida Keys (NFK), and St. John in the US Virgin Islands. 
There was much variability in BBD community composition on a regional 
basis, between sites in the NFK, and in terms of coral host species. The 
observed differences among BBD microbial community profiles were driven 
primarily by variation in relative abundance of 313–316-bp amplicons, 
which correspond to cyanobacteria and α-proteobacteria. The results 
obtained in this study support previous reports of intrinsic variability 
and complexity of the BBD microbial community but also suggest that this 
variability has biogeographic patterns.
*

The presence of the cyanobacterial toxin microcystin in black band 
disease of corals*
Laurie L. Richardson, Raju Sekar, Jamie L. Myers, Miroslav Gantar, Joshua D.
FEMS Microbiol. Lett 272 (2007) 182-187.

Abstract
Black band disease (BBD) is a migrating, cyanobacterial dominated, 
sulfide-rich microbial mat that moves across coral colonies lysing coral 
tissue. While it is known that BBD sulfate-reducing bacteria contribute 
to BBD pathogenicity by production of sulfide, additional mechanisms of 
toxicity may be involved. Using HPLC/MS, the cyanotoxin microcystin was 
detected in 22 field samples of BBD collected from five coral species on 
nine reefs of the wider Caribbean (Florida Keys and Bahamas). Two 
cyanobacterial cultures isolated from BBD, Geitlerinema and Leptolyngbya 
sp. contained microcystin based on HPLC/MS, with toxic activity 
confirmed using the protein phosphatase inhibition assay. The gene mcyA 
from the microcystin synthesis complex was detected in two field samples 
and from both BBD cyanobacterial cultures. Microcystin was not detected 
in six BBD samples from a different area of the Caribbean (St Croix, 
USVI) and the Philippines, suggesting regional specificity for BBD 
microcystin. This is the first report of the presence of microcystin in 
a coral disease.


*Microbial Communities in the Surface Mucopolysaccharide Layer and the 
Black Band Microbial Mat of Black Band-Diseased Siderastrea siderea
*Raju Sekar, DeEtta K. Mills,Elizabeth R. Remily, Joshua D. Voss, and 
Laurie L. Richardson
APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, Sept. 2006, p. 5963–5973 Vol. 
72, No. 9

Microbial community profiles and species composition associated with two 
black band-diseased colonies of the coral Siderastrea siderea were 
studied by 16S rRNA-targeted gene cloning, sequencing, and 
amplicon-length heterogeneity PCR (LH-PCR). Bacterial communities 
associated with the surface mucopolysaccharide layer (SML) of apparently 
healthy tissues of the infected colonies, together with samples of the 
black band disease (BBD) infections, were analyzed using the same 
techniques for comparison. Gene sequences, ranging from 424 to 1,537 bp, 
were retrieved from all positive clones (n  43 to 48) in each of the 
four clone libraries generated and used for comparative sequence 
analysis. In addition to LH-PCR community profiling, all of the clone 
sequences were aligned with LH-PCR primer sequences, and the theoretical 
lengths of the amplicons were determined. Results revealed that the 
community profiles were significantly different between BBD and SML 
samples. The SML samples were
dominated by -proteobacteria (53 to 64%), followed by -proteobacteria 
(18 to 21%) and -proteobacteria (5 to 11%). In contrast, both BBD clone 
libraries were dominated by -proteobacteria (58 to 87%), followed by 
verrucomicrobia (2 to 10%) and 0 to 6% each of -proteobacteria, 
bacteroidetes, firmicutes, and cyanobacteria. Alphaproteobacterial 
sequence types related to the bacteria associated with toxin-producing 
dinoflagellates were observed in BBD clone libraries but were not found 
in the SML libraries. Similarly, sequences affiliated with the family 
Desulfobacteraceae and toxin-producing cyanobacteria, both believed to 
be involved in BBD pathogenesis, were found only in BBD libraries. These 
data provide evidence for an association of numerous toxin-producing 
heterotrophic microorganisms with BBD of corals.


-- 
Cheryl Woodley, Ph.D.
Coral Health and Disease Program

DOC/NOAA/NOS/NCCOS
Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research
Hollings Marine Laboratory
331 Fort Johnson Rd
Charleston, SC 29412
843.762.8862 Phone
843.762.8737 Fax
cheryl.woodley at noaa.gov




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