Using size fractionation to determine whether the SCTLD pathogen is bacterial, viral, or other

As part of the Coral Disease Technical Workshop held in August 2019, a specific experiment was outlined to use tangential flow filtration (TFF) to concentrate the microbial community from mesocosm water containing diseased corals, size fractionate that microbial community based on filter size (e,g., 0.22-μm filters to capture bacteria and 0.025-μm filters to capture viruses), and then physically apply those filters to healthy corals to see which set of filters (and therefore, which size group of microbes) initiated visible signs of SCTLD. The overall goals of this project were (1) to isolate the causative agent of SCTLD to a specific size fraction and (2) to narrow the list of possible suspects within the specific size fraction via sequencing.