Kelly Pitts, a research technician with the Smithsonian Marine Station at Ft. Pierce, Fla., and co-lead author of the study, treats great star coral (Montaststraea cavernosa) colonies infected with SCTLD with probiotic strain McH1-7 by covering the coral colony in a plastic bag, injecting a probiotic bacteria solution into the bag and leaving the bag for two hours to allow for the bacteria to colonize on the coral.
The team monitored the coral colonies for two and a half years and took multiple rounds of tissue and mucus samples to gauge how the corals’ microbiomes changed over time. They discovered that the McH1-7 probiotic successfully slowed the spread of SCTLD when delivered to the entire colony through the bag and solution method. This probiotic treatment method was effective without dominating the corals’ natural microbes.
