Investigating Coral Bacterial Communities in the Flower Garden Banks

Mesophotic reefs have historically been understudied, leading to a dearth of information on the corals that compose these reefs. Recent advancements in technology have enabled researchers to have greater access to reefs at mesophotic depths, generating a greater interest in the microbial communities in both mesophotic and shallow reefs, in order to determine the relative bacterial community differences. Samples of coral mucus from Montastraea cavernosa were collected from Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) in the summer of2010 and 2011. Bacterial community DNA was extracted from the coral mucus and amplified using LH-PCR. Length Heterogeneity PCR is a technique used to amplify the hypervariable Vl and V2 region of the 16s rRNA gene in order to detennine relative base pair length and abundance of microbial connnunities. During the PCR product verification, contamination became apparent in the gel. Through contamination troubleshooting, the source was determined; however, not soon enough to continue with analyzing the samples. This project will be continued in the future in order to add to the mesophotic bacterial community database. The DNA extraction protocol frequently utilized in the laboratory will be modified to increase DNA yields, PCR conditions will be optimized, and the samples will be fully analyzed.