Name: Rebecca Vega Thurber

Email: rvegathurber@gmail.com

Author: Rebecca Vega Thurber1,2, Katie Barott2 and Forest Rohwer2

Author affiliation: 1) Florida International University and 2) San Diego State University

Abstract title: Viral Disease in Tropical Corals

Absstract:

Corals are important ecosystem engineers that provide important services to tropical reefs. Corals are increasingly suffering from diseases with no known etiological agents. We previously used metagenomics to characterize the natural viral assemblage in six coral viromes. Corals were found to contain viral-particles with genomic similarities to a number of eukaryotic viral families including: Herpesviridae, Phycodnaviridae, and Nanoviridae. It was also found that environmental abiotic stressors induce production of viruses in coral tissues (Vega Thurber et al., 2008 PNAS). However, this past work did not explore the effects of these viral infections on coral health and homeostasis. New experiments introducing viral particles from diseased corals to healthy corals demonstrate that viruses cause massive cellular disruption and tissue protuberances in Porites compressa corals. Furthermore,viral temperature sensitivity and size fractionation suggests that the viruses responsible for these signs and symptoms are small and (~40-20nm) and heat stable (70°C for 15mins). We hypothesize that these small thermally resistant viruses are responsible for coral tumor formation in the tropical Pacific. Currently, we are investigating the ecological affect these viral induced tumors have on coral reef ecology.