Great Barrier Reef waters reveal 500 new bacteria and 300,000 viruses

Scientists have completed the first comprehensive survey of the microscopic life living in the open waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. They have uncovered hundreds of bacterial species which were not know previously and hundreds of thousands of viruses.The study which was published in the journal Nature, analysed DNA collected from seawater samples which were taken at 48 reefs across the world's largest coral reef system. This has created the first large database of microbes living in the reef's open waters. The database will help scientists understand what a healthy reef microbiome looks like and how it changes as the reef faces environmental pressures.The research was led by the University of Queensland and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), with contributions from James Cook University, the University of Melbourne and the University of Tasmania.What scientists foundThe team identified 5,283 bacterial and archaeal genomes, representing 876 different species.