Dataset Information

RNA-Seq Reveals Extensive Transcriptional Response to Heat Stress in the Stony Coral Galaxea fascicularis.

ABSTRACT: Galaxea fascicularis, a stony coral belonging to family Oculinidae, is widely distributed in Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and large areas of the Indo-Pacific oceans. So far there is a lack of gene expression knowledge concerning this massive coral. In the present study, G. fascicularis was subjected to heat stress at 32.0 ± 0.5°C in the lab, we found that the density of symbiotic zooxanthellae decreased significantly; meanwhile apparent bleaching and tissue lysing were observed at 10 h and 18 h after heat stress. The transcriptome responses were investigated in the stony coral G. fascicularis during heat bleaching using RNA-seq. A total of 42,028 coral genes were assembled from over 439 million reads. Gene expressions were compared at 10 and 18 h after heat stress. The significantly upregulated genes found in the Control_10h vs. Heat_10h comparison, presented mainly in GO terms related with DNA integration and unfolded protein response; and for the Control_18h vs. Heat_18h comparison, the GO terms include DNA integration. In addition, comparison between groups of Control_10h vs. Heat_10h and Control_18h vs. Heat_18h revealed that 125 genes were significantly upregulated in common between the two groups, whereas 21 genes were significantly downregulated in common, all these differentially expressed genes were found to be involved in stress response, DNA integration and unfolded protein response. Taken together, our results suggest that high temperature could activate the stress response at the early stage, and subsequently induce the bleaching and lysing through DNA integration and unfolded protein response, which are able to disrupt the balance of coral-zooxanthella symbiosis in the stony coral G. fascicularis.

SUBMITTER: Hou J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5816741 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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RNA-Seq Reveals Extensive Transcriptional Response to Heat Stress in the Stony Coral Galaxea fascicularis.

Hou Jing J Xu Tao T Su Dingjia D Wu Ying Y Cheng Li L Wang Jun J Zhou Zhi Z Wang Yan Y

Frontiers in genetics 20180213

Galaxea fascicularis, a stony coral belonging to family Oculinidae, is widely distributed in Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and large areas of the Indo-Pacific oceans. So far there is a lack of gene expression knowledge concerning this massive coral. In the present study, G. fascicularis was subjected to heat stress at 32.0 ± 0.5°C in the lab, we found that the density of symbiotic zooxanthellae decreased significantly; meanwhile apparent bleaching and tissue lysing were observed at 10 ...[more]

PMID: 29487614

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Project description:The symbiosis between cnidarian hosts and photosynthetic dinoflagellates of the family Symbiodiniaceae (i.e., zooxanthellae) provides the energy foundation of coral reef ecosystems in oligotrophic waters. The structure of symbiont biota and the dominant species of algal symbiont partly shape the environmental adaptability of coral symbiotes. In this study, the algal symbiont cells were isolated from the tentacles of Galaxea fascicularis, a hermatypic coral with obvious differentiation in heat resistance, and were cultured in vitro with an improved L1 medium. An algal monoclonal cell line was established using separated algal culture drops and soft agar plating method, and named by GF19C1 as it was identified as Cladocopium sp. C1 (Symbiodiniaceae) based on its ITS1, ITS2, and the non-coding region of the plastid psbA minicircle (psbA ncr ) sequences. Most GF19C1 cells were at the coccoid stage of the gymnodinioid, their markedly thickened (ca. two times) cell wall suggests that they developed into vegetative cysts and have sexual and asexual reproductive potential. The average diameter of GF19C1 cells decreased significantly, probably due to the increasing mitotic rate. The chloroplasts volume density of GF19C1 was significantly lower than that of their symbiotic congeners, while the surface area density of thylakoids relative to volumes of chloroplasts was not significantly changed. The volume fraction of vacuoles increased by nearly fivefold, but there was no significant change in mitochondria and accumulation bodies. Light-temperature orthogonal experiments showed that, GF19C1 growth preferred the temperature 25 ± 1°C (at which it is maintained post-isolation) rather than 28 ± 1°C under the light intensity of 42 ± 2 or 62 ± 2 ?mol photons m-2 s-1, indicating an inertia for temperature adaptation. The optimum salinity for GF19C1 growth ranged between 28-32 ppt. The monoclonal culture techniques established in this study were critical to clarify the physiological and ecological characteristics of various algal symbiont species, and will be instrumental to further reveal the roles of algal symbionts in the adaptive differentiation of coral-zooxanthellae holobionts in future studies.

Dataset Information

RNA-Seq Reveals Extensive Transcriptional Response to Heat Stress in the Stony Coral Galaxea fascicularis.

Publications

RNA-Seq Reveals Extensive Transcriptional Response to Heat Stress in the Stony Coral <i>Galaxea fascicularis</i>.

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