Eric FreundtJayde A. Zimmerman, Cody J. Cox2018-03-062018-03-062017Zimmerman, Jayde A., and Cody J. Cox. “Microbial Properties of Montipora Coral Mucus.” Acta Spartae, 2017. https://doi.org/10.48497/01TG-Z960.http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11868/322Recommended Citation: Zimmerman, Jayde A., and Cody J. Cox. “Microbial Properties of Montipora Coral Mucus.” Acta Spartae, 2017. https://doi.org/10.48497/01TG-Z960.Mucus produced by corals has a varied understanding with many gaps. Although there are many hypotheses regarding the function and purpose of the mucus itself, and the many microbial communities that inhabit it, there are still many inquiries about it. The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether coral mucus possessed diverse microbes and whether the mucus held any antibacterial properties against gram positive or gram negative bacteria compared to seawater. Mucus was collected from Montipora species and plated on marine agar. Individual bacterial colonies were isolated and gram stained. Our results showed that the mucus does not show antibacterial activity but contains as much as five times the amount of bacteria in comparison to seawater. Additionally, the coral mucus contained exclusively gram negative bacteria whereas the seawater contained both gram negative and gram positive bacteria. These results suggest that coral mucus is a hospitable site for growth of gram negative bacteria.en-USMontiporaMicrobialResearch Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCESResearch Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCES::BiologyDepartment of BiologyArticlehttps://doi.org/10.48497/01tg-z960