The Survey Of Stony Coral Diseases In Xisha Archipelago And The Analysis Of Microbial Community Structure In Porites Andrewsi

The main stony coral diseases in Xisha Archipelago were surveyed from May to October in2010and from April to August in2011. Nine diseases, including coral bleaching, white spot disease, coral black disease, yellow inflammatory like syndrome, and pink syndrome, were found in14species of stony coral, such as Porites pukoensis, Porites andrewsi, Montipora spp., Pocillopora spp., Acropora spp., Goniastrea spp., Porites lutea, Porites spp.. The yellow inflammatory-like disease of Porites pukoensis and bleaching in Porites andrewsi were the most popular diseases in this area. The yellow inflammatory-like disease of Porites pukoensis was mainly distributed in the sea near Yongxing Island. Some yellow pus-like secreta presented in its lesion. The areas of lesion were from0.4to2.4cm2and the polyps in the lesion were normally growing, curling or missing. This disease might caused by mechanical damage or other unknown reasons. The recure of the disease caused by mechanical damage would be happened in two to three months. Although it would be disappeared in10to20days while the wound was small, the yellow secreta would be disappeared after one to three months while the disease was caused by other reasons. Bleaching of Porties andrewsi appeared in the sea of Qilian Island. The symptoms of this disease include complete bleaching, part bleaching or white spot disease. The polyps in its lesion missed and the skeleton was very white.Microbial DNA genome was abstracted from Porties andrewsi, and it was analyzed by PCR-DGGE and sequence analysis technology. The results showed that most of the isolates fell within the Vibrio core group, with the highest gene sequence similarity being towards bacteria such as:Vibrio communis, Vibrio harveyi, Vibrio penaeicida, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio sp., Mucus bacterium, Vibrio fortisstrain, PseudoAlteromonas sp., Uncultured bacterium, Uncultured Alteromonas sp., Uncultured alpha proteobacterium. The predominating population mainly belong Vibrio harveyi, Vibrio penaeicida, Vibrio parahaemoly ticus, Vibrio sp., Vibrio cambellii, in bleaching of Porties andrewsi. The predominating population mainly belong to Alteromonas sp. with2216E agar. The predominating population mainly belong to PseudoAlteromonas sp. with TCBS agar. This paper reported coral diseases in Xisha Archipelago for the first time and would provide information and data for further study of coral disease in Xisha in future.