Healthy great star coral colony (IMAGE)
Caption
A close-up of extended polyps of an apparently healthy great star coral colony (Montastraea cavernosa) on a reef near Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The tentacles surrounding the mouth of each polyp help trap food particles for the coral to eat. The brown coloration is from the symbiotic microalgae (Symbiodiniaceae) that live in the coral tissues. Researchers with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History have discovered the first effective bacterial probiotic for treating and preventing stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), a mysterious ailment that has devastated Florida’s coral reefs since 2014 and is rapidly spreading throughout the Caribbean. The probiotic treatment, described in a paper published today in Communications Biology, provides an alternative to the use of the broad-spectrum antibiotic amoxicillin, which has so far been the only proven treatment for the disease but which runs the risk of promoting antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Credit
Valerie Paul
Usage Restrictions
News media use of these photos in relation to the study is permitted with attribution.
License
Original content