Christina M. Runyon

TL;DR: Vibrio coralliilyticus strain OCN008 is described, which induces acute Montipora white syndrome (aMWS), a tissue loss disease responsible for substantial mortality of the coralmontipora capitata in Kāne‘ohe Bay, Hawai‘i.

TL;DR: The study identified the three dominant bacterial constituents indicative of BBD in coral disease lesions from Kaua‘i, which provided the first evidence ofBBD in the Hawaiian archipelago.

TL;DR: Using molecular sequence data, it is shown that S. istiblenni from Hawai'i are genetically affiliated with source populations in French Polynesia, and not parasites at a geographically intermediate location in the Line Islands, indicating a bottleneck at introduction.

TL;DR: Both outbreaks occurred during the colder, rainy winter months, and thus it is likely that some parameter(s) associated with winter environmental conditions are linked to the emergence of disease outbreaks on these reefs.

TL;DR: The results from this study demonstrate that the specificity of coral-bacterial associations extends beyond the level of coral species, and culture-dependent methods captured bacterial diversity that was representative of both rare and abundant members of the associated bacterial community, as characterized by culture-independent methods.