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Fungi in Porites lutea: Association with healthy and diseased corals

DRS at CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography

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Title Fungi in Porites lutea: Association with healthy and diseased corals
 
Creator Ravindran, J.
Raghukumar, C.
Raghukumar, S.
 
Subject microorganisms
coral reefs
diseases
ecological associations
biomass
Porites lutea
 
Description Healthy and diseased scleractinian corals have been reported to harbour fungi. However, the species of fungi occurring in them and their prevalence in terms of biomass have not been determined and their role in coral diseases is not clear It is found that fungi to occur regularly in healthy, partially dead, bleached and pink-line syndrome (PLS)-affected scleractinian coral, Porites lutea, in the reefs of Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea. Mostly terrestrial species of fungi were isolated in culture from these corals. Hyaline and dark, non-sporulating fungi were the most dominant forms. Fungal hyphae extended up to 3 cm within the corals. Immunofluorescence detection using polyclonal immunological probes for a dark, initially non-sporulating isolate (isolate 98-N28) and for a hyaline, non-sporulating fungus (isolate 98-N18) revealed high frequencies of these in PLS-affected, dead and healthy colonies of P. lutea. Total fungal biomass accounted for 0.04 to 0.05% of the weight of corals in bleached corals and was higher than in PLS-affected and healthy colonies. Scanning electron microscopy revealed the presence of fungi within the carbonate skeleton and around polyps. Fungi appear to be a regular component of healthy, partially dead and diseased coral skeleton
 
Date 2009-01-07T09:37:29Z
2009-01-07T09:37:29Z
2001
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, Vol.47; 219-228p.
http://drs.nio.org/drs/handle/2264/1517
 
Language en
 
Rights Copyright [2001]. All efforts have been made to respect the copyright to the best of our knowledge. Inadvertent omissions, if brought to our notice, stand for correction and withdrawal of document from this repository.
 
Publisher Inter-Research