Abstract

Vibrio coralliilyticus is a pathogen that infects various coral species across several reef ecosystems and causes mortality within a span of a few days. With increasing temperatures, the pathogen becomes more virulent towards coral. Probiotics such as MCH1-7 have previously been used to treat infected corals before and after exposure to V. coralliilyticus. In this study, we will be using a species of sea anemone Exaiptasia diaphana in place of coral to evaluate the effects of two V. coralliilyticus strains ATCC BAA-450 and OFT6-21. It was determined that BAA-450 was more virulent. It led to immediate stress and higher mortality. OFT6-21 did not have any deaths across three concentrations (106 , 107 , and 108 CFU/ml). These experiments were performed over a ten-day period in the lethal challenge. It was confirmed that anemones can be primed with a probiotic, in this case MCH1-7 and with OFT6-21. BAA-450 changes were not significant, and we could not confirm priming occurred. We also assessed if the anemones can be immunologically primed using the probiotic. This was shown with the lethal challenge experiment involving OFT6-21 (Kaplan-Meier; p-value = 0.0073). Overall, it was concluded that BAA-450 was more virulent as opposed to OFT6-21, and that anemones can be primed with OFT6-21. As for BAA-450, it will need to be run again to see what could be affecting the minor changes it had. Anemones primed with MCH1-7 showed it aided in the delay of stress and death.

Date of publication

7-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Language

english

Persistent identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10950/5091

Committee members

Tanya Brown, Brent Bill, Joshua Banta

Degree

Masters in Biology

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