Mucus functions as a protective barrier for the coral
(e.g., Sutherland et al., 2004) and can accumulate and trap microbes from the surrounding water column
(Ritchie,2006), which may cause or promote disease. Similarly, in
this study human enteric viruses were detected more often
in coral mucus than in the immediately overlying water column,
where both coral mucus and water were concentrated
from a 50 ml sample volume. While this sample volume is
small in comparison to many similar studies, research has
indicated that inhibition of PCR signal increases as sample
volume increases (Kopecka et al., 1993). Fuhrman et al.
(2005) report recovery efficiencies of up to 22.6% for seeded
enteroviruses in 50 ml of seawater.