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Aspergillosis Of Gorgonians: Origins Of The PathogenJulianna Weir-Brush1, Ginger Garrison2,
and Garriet Smith3 1University of South Carolina,
Marine Science Program, Columbia, SC; 2U.S. Geological Survey, St.
Petersburg, FL; 1University of South Carolina-Aiken, Dept. of
Biology and Geology, Aiken, SC The number of reports
of coral diseases has increased throughout the world in the last twenty
years. Aspergillosis, which primarily
affects Gorgonia ventalina and G. flabellum,
is one of the few diseases that have been characterized. This disease is caused by Aspergillus sydowii, a terrestrial fungus with a worldwide distribution, and
the Caribbean is a hotspot for aspergillosis.
Upon infection, colonies may lose tissue, and ultimately, mortality may
occur if the infection is not sequestered.
The spores of A. sydowii are
generally < 2 mm, which allows them to be easily picked up by winds and
dispersed over great distances. In
addition to this, the primarily terrestrial fungus has adapted to a marine
environment. For this reason, it has
been proposed that dust storms originating in Africa may be one way in which
potential coral pathogens are distributed and deposited into the marine
environments of the Caribbean. To test
the hypothesis that African dust storms transport and deposit pathogens, we
focused on fungal pathogens and used A.
sydowii as a model.
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