title: Cyanobacteria associated with coral black band disease in Caribbean and Indo-Pacific Reefs.
abstract: For 30 years it has been assumed that a single species of cyanobacteria, Phormidium corallyticum, is the volumetrically dominant component of all cases of black band disease (BBD) in coral. Cyanobacterium-specific 16S rRNA gene primers and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses were used to determine the phylogenetic diversity of these BBD cyanobacteria on coral reefs in the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific Seas. These analyses indicate that the cyanobacteria that inhabit BBD bacterial mats collected from the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific Seas belong to at least three different taxa, despite the fact that the corals in each case exhibit similar signs and patterns of BBD mat development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology, University of Illinois, Urbana 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Frias-Lopez
authors.forename: George T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Bonheyo
authors.forename: Qusheng
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Bruce W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Fouke
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000382:microbiology*; D017691:Caribbean Region; D000458:Cyanobacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000032:analysis; D019156:Indian Ocean; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010140:Pacific Ocean; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S