Catching up and had a couple questions

[gregt]

I finally caught up on all the reading and had a couple questions on the lecture material, I hope you don't mind.


Could you elaborate on "normal flora provide resistance"? (Mentioned in "Causes of Coral Disease" part 3 of coral disease pdf's) I wasn't sure what you meant by that.

Based on Table 2 "Results of Inducing RTN in Aquaria", what conclusions do you feel comfortable in making (specifically regarding Tank 3, which recieved only water from RTN effected tank)?

 

[Eric Borneman]

By normal flora, I mean that corals normally have a very rich population of bacteria on their surface. These affect their respiration rates. They also act as food. They also break down products on the surface of the coral which may be absorbed or swallowed. Finally, bacteria produce their own antibiotics and compete against non-native strains and species. For all of these reasons, normal bacteria on the surface of corals are a good thing - or at least the coral is acustomed to themand respires normally in their presence...unless stressed.

With the RTN experiment, I think it shows a likelihood of the method of contagia either being a chemically produced trigger by the coral tissue or microbial degradation products...or, alternately, that a bacterium small enough to pass through the millepore filter or a virus is the trigger.

Eric

 

[gregt]

Thanks Eric, I appreciate you suffering through the late questions.