[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



More information about the Coral-List mailing list