Journal of Microbial & Biochemical Technology

Identification of the causal agent of Porites sp. bleaching in Gulf of Aqaba

Joint Event on 4^th World Congress and Expo on Applied Microbiology & 2^nd International Conference on Food Microbiology

November 29-December 01, 2017 Madrid, Spain

Nehaya Al Karablieh and Fuad Al Horani

Hamdi Mango Center for Scientific Research - The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
Faculty of Marine Sciences - The University of Jordan, Aqaba, Jordan

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Microb Biochem Technol

Abstract:

Coral reefs are the most diverse of marine ecosystems, Gulf of Aqaba coral reefs were considered as an example for biodiversity in sub-tropical ecosystem. Porites sp. is considered to be the most dominant species of stony coral reefs in Gulf of Aqaba. In this study, we are investigating the Porites sp. associated bacterial community structure found in diseased coral colonies. Porites sp. colonies have been sampled by scuba diving four times: summer 2015, autumn 2015, winter 2015 and spring 2016. The samples were taken from two different locations MSS and Yamaneh in replicates from diseased (n=6). The samples were used for bacterial isolation on thiosulfate-citrate-bile salts-sucrose agar (TCBS); the developed colonies were used for detection of zinc metalloprotease gene of Vibrio. The results revealed occurrence of 152 colonies were positive in detection of zinc metalloprotease out of 432 colonies from all seasons of diseased samples. The current work is subjecting the putative pathogenic colonies for further identification by 16S-rRNA PCR products sequencing and biochemical tests for further use in the project.

Biography :

Nehaya Al Karablieh has completed her PhD from Jacobs University, Germany and Postdoctoral Research from Phytolutions GmbH, Germany. She is the Group Leader of Molecular Microbiology group at HMCSR, The University of Jordan. She has published about 15 papers in reputed journals.