Novel antibacterial activity of Sargassum fusiforme extract against coral white band disease

Abstract

Background: Coral diseases are one of the serious threats embroiling in the imbalance of the coral holobiont integrity through disruption of the complex symbiotic relationship between endobiotic alga, coral animal, and a group of microorganisms. Such diseases are usually associated with many bacterial pathogens inflicting gross lesions in corals which show resistance against antibiotics. Therefore, this has led scientists to draw more attention towards the curative compounds from natural resources like herbal plants and seaweeds as substitutes for chemical antimicrobial agents. This study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial activity of the crude extracts (n-hexane, ethyl acetate, and ethanol), alkaloids, and flavonoids from Sargassum fusiforme through Well Diffusion Assay against different isolated bacterial coral pathogens such as (Vibrio owensii, Empedobacter brevis, Providencia vermicola, and Brevibacterium linens) which cause white band disease to coral reef Porites lutea. This study was also validated by bacterial growth kinetics using optical density, dry weight, and plate count method for the isolated coral bacterial pathogens.

Results: The results indicated that the crude extract with n-hexane and alkaloid extract showed prominent inhibiting activity against the tested bacterial pathogens compared to other extracts.

Conclusions: Here we report S. fusiforme extracts as a novel antibacterial agent against four Porites lutea bacterial pathogens and further investigation is recommended against other coral pathogens. Overall, S. fusiforme extracts might be able to improve the health status of commercially important coral species.