Predatory bacteria halted disease in over half of endangered corals

A microscopic predator could offer a new weapon against one of the Caribbean’s most destructive coral diseases. In a Georgia Tech study, researchers found that predatory bacteria called Halobacteriovorax were able to stop disease from spreading in endangered Caribbean corals after the animals were experimentally infected in a Florida laboratory.The result is especially striking because the untreated corals deteriorated quickly. In the study, all corals that did not receive the predator bleached within 48 hours, while more than half of the treated corals showed no bleaching beyond the original infection site and no tissue loss was observed.How the experiment workedThe team worked with Acropora cervicornis, a critically endangered Caribbean staghorn coral, and infected it with Vibrio coralliilyticus, a pathogen known to cause rapid tissue loss and death in stony corals.