Viruses Could be the Key to Healthy CoralCorals are an invaluable part of the marine ecosystem, fostering biodiversity and protecting coastlines. But they’re also increasingly endangered. Pathogenic bacteria, along with pollution and harmful fishing practices, are one of the biggest threats to the world’s coral populations today.One of the solutions to the crisis may lie in human medicine. Prof. Eugene Rosenberg of Tel Aviv Univ.’s Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, working in collaboration with Ilil Atad of his own laboratory and Yossi Loya of TAU’s Department of Zoology, has developed a treatment for coral infected by Thalassomonas loyana, otherwise known as White Plague disease. This deadly bacterium infects 9 percent of Favia favus corals on the Eilat coral reef in the Red Sea and readily transmits the disease to nearby healthy corals.Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/08/viruses-could-be-key-healthy-coral

Viruses Could be the Key to Healthy Coral

Corals are an invaluable part of the marine ecosystem, fostering biodiversity and protecting coastlines. But they’re also increasingly endangered. Pathogenic bacteria, along with pollution and harmful fishing practices, are one of the biggest threats to the world’s coral populations today.

One of the solutions to the crisis may lie in human medicine. Prof. Eugene Rosenberg of Tel Aviv Univ.’s Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, working in collaboration with Ilil Atad of his own laboratory and Yossi Loya of TAU’s Department of Zoology, has developed a treatment for coral infected by Thalassomonas loyana, otherwise known as White Plague disease. This deadly bacterium infects 9 percent of Favia favus corals on the Eilat coral reef in the Red Sea and readily transmits the disease to nearby healthy corals.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/08/viruses-could-be-key-healthy-coral