ArticlePloS one2011
Human pathogen shown to cause disease in the threatened eklhorn coral Acropora palmata.
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
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Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed.
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- PrtA-mediated flagellar turnover is essential for robust biofilm development inApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Halobacteriovorax halts disease progression in endangered Caribbean corals.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Sediment exposure decreases diversity in the surface mucus layer microbiome ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- The road forward to incorporate seawater microbes in predictive reef monitoring.Environmental microbiome · 2024Review
- Seasonal dynamics and environmental drivers of tissue and mucus microbiomes in the staghorn coralPeerJ · 2024Article
- A coral disease outbreak highlights vulnerability of remote high-latitude lagoons to global and local stressors.iScience · 2023Article
- Integrated watershed management solutions for healthy coastal ecosystems and people.Cambridge prisms. Coastal futures · 2023Review
- Article
- Untapped policy avenues to protect coral reef ecosystems.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Strategies for managing marine disease.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2022Article
- SARS-CoV-2 and wastewater: What does it mean for non-human primates?American journal of primatology · 2022Article
- The coral symbiont Candidatus Aquarickettsia is variably abundant in threatened Caribbean acroporids and transmitted horizontally.The ISME journal · 2022Article
- A rapid phenotype change in the pathogen Perkinsus marinus was associated with a historically significant marine disease emergence in the eastern oyster.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Parasite-host ecology: the limited impacts of an intimate enemy on host microbiomes.Animal microbiome · 2020Article
- Relationships between a common Caribbean corallivorous snail and protected area status, coral cover, and predator abundance.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Article
- Draft Genome Sequences of 38 Serratia marcescens Isolates Associated with Acroporid Serratiosis.Microbiology resource announcements · 2019Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
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 pathogen through fulfillment of Koch's postulates. A. palmata inoculated with strain PDR60 from C. abbreviata showed limited virulence, with one of three inoculated fragments developing APS signs within 13 days. Strain PDR60 from non-host coral S. siderea showed a delayed pathogenic effect, with disease signs developing within an average of 20 days. These results suggest that C. abbreviata and non-host corals may function as reservoirs or vectors of the APS pathogen. Our results provide the first example of a marine "reverse zoonosis" involving the transmission of a human pathogen (S. marcescens) to a marine invertebrate (A. palmata). These findings underscore the interaction between public health practices and environmental health indices such as coral reef survival.
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