Site-specific variation in gene expression from Symbiodinium spp. associated with offshore and inshore Porites astreoides in the lower Florida Keys is lost with bleaching and disease stress.

Scleractinian coral are experiencing unprecedented rates of mortality due to increases in sea surface temperatures in response to global climate change. Some coral species however, survive high temperature events due to a reduced susceptibility to bleaching. We investigated the relationship between bleaching susceptibility and expression of five metabolically related genes of Symbiodinium spp.

Genetically divergent Symbiodinium sp. display distinct molecular responses to pathogenic Vibrio and thermal stress.

Global climate change and anthropogenic activities are threatening the future survival of coral reef ecosystems. The ability of reef-building zooxanthellate coral to survive these stressors may be determined through fundamental differences within their symbiotic dinoflagellates (Symbiodinium sp.).

Incidence of lesions on Fungiidae corals in the eastern Red Sea is related to water temperature and coastal pollution.

As sea surface temperatures rise and the global human population increases, large-scale field observations of marine organism health and water quality are increasingly necessary. We investigated the health of corals from the family Fungiidae using visual observations in relation to water quality and microbial biogeochemistry parameters along 1300 km of the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. At large scales, incidence of lesions caused by unidentified etiology showed consistent signs, increasing significantly from the northern to southern coast and positively correlated to annual mean seawater temperatures.

Ulcerated yellow spot syndrome: implications of aquaculture-related pathogens associated with soft coral Sarcophyton ehrenbergi tissue lesions.

We introduce a new marine syndrome called ulcerated yellow spot, affecting the soft coral Sarcophyton ehrenbergi. To identify bacteria associated with tissue lesions, tissue and mucus samples were taken during a 2009 Indo-Pacific research expedition near the Wakatobi Island chain, Indonesia. Polymerase chain reaction targeting the 16S rDNA gene indicated associations with the known fish-disease-causing bacterium Photobacterium damselae, as well as multiple Vibrio species.

The Vibrio core group induces yellow band disease in Caribbean and Indo-Pacific reef-building corals.

Aims: To determine the relationship between yellow band disease (YBD)-associated pathogenic bacteria found in both Caribbean and Indo-Pacific reefs, and the virulence of these pathogens. YBD is one of the most significant coral diseases of the tropics.

Materials And Results: The consortium of four Vibrio species was isolated from YBD tissue on Indo-Pacific corals: Vibrio rotiferianus, Vibrio harveyi, Vibrio alginolyticus and Vibrio proteolyticus.