School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.
Department of Evolution and Ecology & Bodega Marine Lab, University of California, Davis, Bodega Bay, CA, 94923, USA.
Sci Rep. 2022 Nov 11;12(1):19286. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-23457-6.
Marine infectious diseases are a leading cause of population declines globally due, in large part, to challenges in diagnosis and limited treatment options. Mitigating disease spread is particularly important for species targeted for conservation. In some systems, strategic arrangement of organisms in space can constrain disease outbreaks, however, this approach has not been used in marine restoration. Reef building corals have been particularly devastated by disease and continue to experience catastrophic population declines. We show that mixtures of genotypes (i.e., diversity) increased disease resistance in the critically endangered Acropora cervicornis, a species that is frequently targeted for restoration of degraded reefs in the broader Caribbean region. This finding suggests a more generalized relationship between diversity and disease and offers a viable strategy for mitigating the spread of infectious diseases in corals that likely applies to other foundation species targeted for restoration.
海洋传染病是导致全球物种数量减少的主要原因之一，这在很大程度上是由于诊断方面的挑战和有限的治疗选择。减轻疾病传播对于受保护物种尤为重要。在某些系统中，生物体在空间中的战略性布局可以限制疾病爆发，然而，这种方法尚未在海洋恢复中使用。造礁珊瑚受到疾病的严重破坏，其种群数量继续灾难性地减少。我们表明，基因型的混合（即多样性）增加了极度濒危的鹿角珊瑚（Acropora cervicornis）的疾病抵抗力，这种珊瑚经常被用于修复更广泛的加勒比地区退化的珊瑚礁。这一发现表明，多样性和疾病之间存在更普遍的关系，并为减轻传染病在珊瑚中的传播提供了一种可行的策略，这种策略可能适用于其他受保护的基础物种。
