Recent research has explored the use of bacterial probiotics to address Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD), a condition severely affecting coral reefs in Florida and the Caribbean. A study published in *Frontiers in Marine Science* evaluated the effectiveness of the bacterium *Pseudoalteromonas sp.* McH1-7 as a probiotic treatment for SCTLD-infected *Montastraea cavernosa* colonies in the wild. The researchers tested two application methods: injecting a probiotic solution into a weighted bag placed over the entire coral colony and applying a sodium alginate-based paste directly to each disease lesion. The study found that the whole-colony treatment method successfully slowed SCTLD progression over a 2.5-year period, while the lesion-specific paste treatment was less effective. This suggests that probiotic inoculations via a whole-colony treatment technique may provide a path toward slowing the loss of reef-building corals due to SCTLD.
Another study, co-authored by researchers from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and the University of North Carolina Wilmington, investigated the use of the probiotic strain *Pseudoalteromonas sp.* McH1-7 to combat SCTLD in wild corals. The researchers applied the probiotic across entire coral colonies and monitored the results over two and a half years. The findings indicated that the probiotic treatment helped prevent tissue loss and provided a viable alternative to antibiotics, which often require frequent reapplication and carry the risk of fostering antibiotic-resistant strains of SCTLD.
These studies highlight the potential of probiotic treatments as a promising approach to combat SCTLD and protect coral reef ecosystems. Further research and field trials are necessary to refine these methods and assess their effectiveness across different coral species and regions.