Document Type
Technical Report
Date of this Version
2008
Publication Source
PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
Volume
105
Issue
47
Start Page
18413
Last Page
18418
DOI
10.1073/pnas.0808985105
Abstract
During the last several decades corals have been in decline and at least one-third of all coral species are now threatened by extinction. Coral disease has been a major contributor to this threat, but little is known about the responsible pathogens. To date most research has focused on bacterial and fungal diseases; however, viruses may also be important for coral health. Using a combination of empirical viral metagenomics and real-time PCR, we show that Porites compressa corals contain a suite of eukaryotic viruses, many related to the Herpesviridae. This coral-associated viral consortium was found to shift in response to abiotic stressors. In particular, when exposed to reduced pH, elevated nutrients, and thermal stress, the abundance of herpes-like viral sequences rapidly increased in 2 separate experiments. Herpes-like viral sequences were rarely detected in apparently healthy corals, but were abundant in a majority of stressed samples. In addition, surveys of the Nematostella and Hydra genomic projects demonstrate that even distantly related Cnidarians contain numerous herpes-like viral genes, likely as a result of latent or endogenous viral infection. These data support the hypotheses that corals experience viral infections, which are exacerbated by stress, and that herpes-like viruses are common in Cnidarians.
Copyright/Permission Statement
© 2008 National Academy of Sciences.
Keywords
coral reefs, disease, Herpesviridae, viral-like particles, virome
Recommended Citation
Thurber, R. L., Barott, K., Hall, D., Liu, H., Rodriguez-Mueller, B., Desnues, C., Edwards, R. A., Haynes, M., Angly, F. E., Wegley, L., & Rohwer, F. (2008). Metagenomic Analysis Indicates that Stressors Induce Production of Herpes-Like Viruses in Coral Porites compressa. PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), 105 (47), 18413-18418. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0808985105
Included in
Biology Commons, Marine Biology Commons, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons, Virology Commons
Date Posted: 04 October 2017
This document has been peer reviewed.
Comments
At the time of this publication Dr. Barott was affiliated with San Diego State University, but she is now a faculty member of the University of Pennsylvania.