Undergrad’s underwater research

Research by an undergraduate Clemson student could help conserve an important deep-sea coral that is imperiled by a changing global climate and human activities such as fishing and oil exploration.  Joshua Tucker, senior microbiology major and Goldwater scholar, developed the first genomic portrait of a reef-building coral known as the “fluted finger coral.”  “It is very important that we understand these deep-sea corals well because they are crucial to the health of their community,” says Tucker.