Although corals are thought to only possess an innate immune system (Palmer and Traylor-Knowles, 2012), the presence of the MyD88-dependent Toll-like receptor signaling pathway is an example of an adaptive-like immune response system that may help corals mitigate bacterial infections (Wiens et al., 2005; Poole and Weis, 2014) associated with severe sedimentation. The gene discussed is MYD88; the disease is bacterial infectious disease.