[Coral-List] Microbial biodiversity in threatened corals captured by pyrosequencing
Shinichi Sunagawa
biochemistry at gmx.de
Fri Mar 5 17:46:28 EST 2010
Hello Coral-listers,
Given the recent discussions on biodiversity loss, the "infamous 82
corals", and that 2010 is the "International Year of Biodiversity", we
would like to draw your attention to a paper published today in PLoS ONE:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0009554
In this work, we captured the bacterial diversity associated with
Caribbean corals using pyrosequencing. Two of the species we
investigated are listed under the US Endangered Species Act (Acropora
palmata and A. cervicornis) and two more (Montastraea faveolata and M.
franksi) belong to the "infamous 82 corals", now proposed to be added.
The results illustrate that corals provide specialized microbial
habitats and thus highlight the importance of conserving corals from a
microbial diversity-based perspective.
Thanks for your interest!
Shinichi Sunagawa, Cheryl Woodley and Mónica Medina
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