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Living deep-water coral assemblages were discovered recently inhabiting the Mediterranean Sea between the depths of 300 and 1000m off the Cape of Santa Maria di Leuca (Apulian platform, Ionian Sea). This living assemblage was dominated by two colonial scleractinian corals, Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata. Two other corals, Desmophyllum crystagalli and Stenocyathus vermiformis were also recovered from this site, but were much less common. The composition of the metabolically active fraction of the microbial community associated with living specimens of L. pertusa was determined. Dead corals, proximal sediments and overlying seawater were also sampled and analyzed. Complementary 16S ribosomal DNA (crDNA) was obtained from total RNA extracted from all samples that had been subjected to reverse transcription-PCR amplification. Domain-specific 16S PCR primers were used to …