human pathogen shown to cause disease in the threatened eklhorn coral acropora palmata人类病原体所引起疾病的威胁eklhorn珊瑚疣palmata.pdfVIP

Human Pathogen Shown to Cause Disease in the Threatened Eklhorn Coral Acropora palmata 1 1 2 3 4 Kathryn Patterson Sutherland *, Sameera Shaban , Jessica L. Joyner , James W. Porter , Erin K. Lipp 1 Department of Biology, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, United States of America, 2 Odum School of Ecology and Department of Environmental Health Science, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America, 3 Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America, 4 Department of Environmental Health Science, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America Abstract Coral reefs are in severe decline. Infections by the human pathogen Serratia marcescens have contributed to precipitous losses in the common Caribbean elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, culminating in its listing under the United States Endangered Species Act. During a 2003 outbreak of this coral disease, called acroporid serratiosis (APS), a unique strain of the pathogen, Serratia marcescens strain PDR60, was identified from diseased A. palmata, human wastewater, the non-host coral Siderastrea siderea and the corallivorous snail Coralliophila abbreviata. In order to examine humans as a source and other marine invertebrates as vectors and/or reservoirs of the APS pathogen, challenge experiments were conducted with A. palmata maintained in closed aquaria to determine infectivity of strain PDR60 from reef and wastewater sources. Strain PDR60 from wastewater and diseased A. palmata caused disease signs in elkhorn coral in as little as four and five days, respectively, demonstrating that wastewater is a definitive source of APS and identifying human strain PDR60 as a coral pa