Restoration stocks of a caribbean coral species contain low levels of inherent stony coral tissue loss disease resistance
Sara D Williams, Michael S Studivan, Stephanie Sirotzke, Natalia Andrade Rodriguez, Zachary Craig, Sarah B Hamlyn, Daniel M Holstein, Lys M Isma, Nicholas J MacKnight, Joseph A Mandara, Stephanie M Rosales, Ashley M Rossin, Nikki Traylor-Knowles, Cory Walter, Benjamin D Young, Erinn M Muller · 2026
Read Restoration stocks of a caribbean coral species contain low levels of inherent stony coral tissue loss disease resistance by Sara D Williams, Michael S Studivan, Stephanie Sirotzke, Natalia Andrade Rodriguez, Zachary Craig, Sarah B Hamlyn, Daniel M Holstein, Lys M Isma, Nicholas J MacKnight, Joseph A Mandara, Stephanie M Rosales, Ashley M Rossin, Nikki Traylor-Knowles, Cory Walter, Benjamin D Young, Erinn M Muller (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13482593.txt.
Description
Williams and a large restoration team test in 2026 whether the coral colonies nurseries raise for reef repair can withstand stony coral tissue loss disease, the plague devastating Florida's reef since 2014. They exposed 154 genetic lines of the reef-building coral Orbicella faveolata to the disease across four laboratory experiments, scoring each line's tissue loss. The question matters because planting disease-prone stock wastes years of reef recovery work.
Resistance proved scarce, with only 12 of the 154 lines staying consistently resistant across repeated exposures in the tank experiments run by the team. Four resistance tiers emerged overall, and the resistant lines also faced lower disease risk after planting at a Lower Florida Keys site, matching lab promise to field behavior. Long-term survival still swung with other stressors, and the authors urge restoration programs to screen stock against disease and multiple stresses before large plantings.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Sara D Williams, Michael S Studivan, Stephanie Sirotzke, Natalia Andrade Rodriguez, Zachary Craig, Sarah B Hamlyn, Daniel M Holstein, Lys M Isma, Nicholas J MacKnight, Joseph A Mandara, Stephanie M Rosales, Ashley M Rossin, Nikki Traylor-Knowles, Cory Walter, Benjamin D Young, Erinn M Muller |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 50 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |