Dataset Information

Location-specific responses to thermal stress in larvae of the reef-building coral Montastraea faveolata.

ABSTRACT: The potential to adapt to a changing climate depends in part upon the standing genetic variation present in wild populations. In corals, the dispersive larval phase is particularly vulnerable to the effects of environmental stress. Larval survival and response to stress during dispersal and settlement will play a key role in the persistence of coral populations.To test the hypothesis that larval transcription profiles reflect location-specific responses to thermal stress, symbiont-free gametes from three to four colonies of the scleractinian coral Montastraea faveolata were collected from Florida and Mexico, fertilized, and raised under mean and elevated (up 1 to 2 degrees C above summer mean) temperatures. These locations have been shown to exchange larvae frequently enough to prevent significant differentiation of neutral loci. Differences among 1,310 unigenes were simultaneously characterized using custom cDNA microarrays, allowing investigation of gene expression patterns among larvae generated from wild populations under stress. Results show both conserved and location-specific variation in key processes including apoptosis, cell structuring, adhesion and development, energy and protein metabolism, and response to stress, in embryos of a reef-building coral.These results provide first insights into location-specific variation in gene expression in the face of gene flow, and support the hypothesis that coral host genomes may house adaptive potential needed to deal with changing environmental conditions.

SUBMITTER: Polato NR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2890407 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Location-specific responses to thermal stress in larvae of the reef-building coral Montastraea faveolata.

Polato Nicholas R NR Voolstra Christian R CR Schnetzer Julia J DeSalvo Michael K MK Randall Carly J CJ Szmant Alina M AM Medina Mónica M Baums Iliana B IB

PloS one 20100623 6

<h4>Background</h4>The potential to adapt to a changing climate depends in part upon the standing genetic variation present in wild populations. In corals, the dispersive larval phase is particularly vulnerable to the effects of environmental stress. Larval survival and response to stress during dispersal and settlement will play a key role in the persistence of coral populations.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>To test the hypothesis that larval transcription profiles reflect location-spe ...[more]

PMID: 20585643

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Project description:The potential to adapt to a changing climate depends in part upon the standing genetic variation present in wild populations. In corals, the dispersive larval phase is particularly vulnerable to the effects of environmental stress. Larval survival and response to stress during dispersal and settlement will play a key role in the persistence of coral populations. To test the hypothesis that larval transcription profiles reflect population specific responses to thermal stress, symbiont-free gametes of the scleractinian coral Montastraea faveolata were collected from Florida and Mexico and raised under normal and elevated temperatures. These populations have been shown to exchange larvae frequently enough to prevent significant differentiation of neutral loci. Differences among thousands of genes were simultaneously characterized using microarrays, allowing investigation of gene expression patterns among wild populations under stressful environmental conditions. Results show site-specific signatures of gene expression in larvae of a reef-building coral from different parts of its range (despite low genetic divergence), and reveal both local and general components of stress response during later stages of larval development. These results provide evidence of site-specific variation in the face of gene flow, which may represent functional genetic variation in different subpopulations, and support the idea that coral host genomes may indeed house the adaptive potential needed to deal with changing environmental conditions. The experimental setup followed a reference design, i.e. all samples were hybridized against the same pool made up of equal amounts of RNA from all samples collected in Mexico. For samples from Mexico we used three technical replicates for each treatment temperature, for samples from Florida three biological replicates were used for each treatment temperature, except for the high temperature samples at day two where only two replicates were available due to high larval mortality at that temperature. Common reference samples were labeled with Cy3, temperature treatment samples with Cy5. Microarrays for M. faveolata contained 1,314 coding sequences, of which 43% had functional annotations as determined by homology to known genes.

Project description:BackgroundScleractinian corals are the foundation of reef ecosystems in tropical marine environments. Their great success is due to interactions with endosymbiotic dinoflagellates (Symbiodinium spp.), with which they are obligately symbiotic. To develop a foundation for studying coral biology and coral symbiosis, we have constructed a set of cDNA libraries and generated and annotated ESTs from two species of corals, Acropora palmata and Montastraea faveolata.ResultsWe generated 14,588 (Ap) and 3,854 (Mf) high quality ESTs from five life history/symbiosis stages (spawned eggs, early-stage planula larvae, late-stage planula larvae either infected with symbionts or uninfected, and adult coral). The ESTs assembled into a set of primarily stage-specific clusters, producing 4,980 (Ap), and 1,732 (Mf) unigenes. The egg stage library, relative to the other developmental stages, was enriched in genes functioning in cell division and proliferation, transcription, signal transduction, and regulation of protein function. Fifteen unigenes were identified as candidate symbiosis-related genes as they were expressed in all libraries constructed from the symbiotic stages and were absent from all of the non symbiotic stages. These include several DNA interacting proteins, and one highly expressed unigene (containing 17 cDNAs) with no significant protein-coding region. A significant number of unigenes (25) encode potential pattern recognition receptors (lectins, scavenger receptors, and others), as well as genes that may function in signaling pathways involved in innate immune responses (toll-like signaling, NFkB p105, and MAP kinases). Comparison between the A. palmata and an A. millepora EST dataset identified ferritin as a highly expressed gene in both datasets that appears to be undergoing adaptive evolution. Five unigenes appear to be restricted to the Scleractinia, as they had no homology to any sequences in the nr databases nor to the non-scleractinian cnidarians Nematostella vectensis and Hydra magnipapillata.ConclusionPartial sequencing of 5 cDNA libraries each for A. palmata and M. faveolata has produced a rich set of candidate genes (4,980 genes from A. palmata, and 1,732 genes from M. faveolata) that we can use as a starting point for examining the life history and symbiosis of these two species, as well as to further expand the dataset of cnidarian genes for comparative genomics and evolutionary studies.

Dataset Information

Location-specific responses to thermal stress in larvae of the reef-building coral Montastraea faveolata.

Publications

Location-specific responses to thermal stress in larvae of the reef-building coral Montastraea faveolata.

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