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Feeding increases the number of offspring but decreases parental investment of Red Sea coral Stylophora pistillata.

ABSTRACT: Successful reproductive output and recruitment is crucial to coral persistence and recovery following anthropogenic stress. Feeding is known to alter coral physiology and increase resilience to bleaching.The goal of the study was to address the knowledge gap of the influence of feeding on reproductive output and offspring phenotype.Colonies of Stylophora pistillata from the Northern Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea) were fed an Artemia diet or unfed for 5 months during gametogenesis, fertilization, and brooding. In addition, time to settlement and mortality of planulae were assessed at water temperatures ranging from winter temperature (22°C) to three degrees above average peak summer temperature (31°C). A range of physiological parameters was measured in parents and offspring.In brooding parents, feeding significantly increased protein concentration and more than tripled the number of released planulae. Planulae from unfed colonies had higher chlorophyll per symbiont concentration and concomitantly higher photosynthetic efficiency compared to planulae from fed parents. In settlement assays, planulae showed a similar thermal resistance as known for this Red Sea adult population. Mortality was greater in planulae from unfed parents at ambient and 3°C above ambient temperature despite higher per offspring investment in terms of total fatty acid content. Fatty acid profiles and relative abundances were generally conserved between different fed and unfed colonies but planulae were enriched in monounsaturated fatty acids relative to adults, that is, 16:1, 18:1, 20:1, 22:1, and 24:1 isomers.Ultimately the availability of zooplankton could influence population physiology and recruitment in corals.

SUBMITTER: Bellworthy J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6854114 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Feeding increases the number of offspring but decreases parental investment of Red Sea coral Stylophora pistillata.

Bellworthy Jessica J Spangenberg Jorge E JE Fine Maoz M

Ecology and evolution 20191002 21

Successful reproductive output and recruitment is crucial to coral persistence and recovery following anthropogenic stress. Feeding is known to alter coral physiology and increase resilience to bleaching.The goal of the study was to address the knowledge gap of the influence of feeding on reproductive output and offspring phenotype.Colonies of Stylophora pistillata from the Northern Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea) were fed an Artemia diet or unfed for 5 months during gametogenesis, fertili ...[more]

PMID: 31832157

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Project description:Over the past several decades, corals worldwide have been affected by global warming, experiencing severe bleaching events that have often lead to coral death. The symbiotic Red Sea coral Stylophora pistillata is considered an opportunistic ‘r’ strategist, thriving in relatively unstable and unpredictable environments, and it is considered a stress-tolerant species. This study aimed to examine S. pistillata gene expression and to clarify the cellular pathways that are active during short-term heat stress caused by an increase from 24°C to 34°C over a 10-day period. Total RNA was extracted from heat-stressed coral fragments, labeled and hybridized against a designated S. pistillata custom microarray containing approximately 12,000 genes. Our results show that the heat stress reaction was sighted from 32°C and intensified significantly after 34°C treatment. Protein interaction networks of up- and down-regulated genes were constructed. The main clustering groups of up-regulated genes were ER stress and ER protein folding, cell cycle, ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, cell death and cell death regulation and cellular stress response genes. These genes were enriched in cellular pathways related to the unfolded protein response (UPR) in the ER, ER-associated degradation (ERAD) and ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis. An analysis of the down-regulated genes yielded different clusters of genes related to extracellular matrix and actin organization, collagen, negative regulation of cell death and the Notch and Wnt signaling pathways. Genes encoding redox regulation proteins and molecular chaperones may be considered accurate “early warning genes”, while genes related to sensing and repairing DNA damage are severe heat-related genes. Here, we suggest that during short-term heat stress, S. pistillata might divert cellular energy into mechanisms such as UPR and ERAD at the expense of growth and biomineralization processes in an effort to recover from the stress.

Project description:Energy sources of corals, ultimately sunlight and plankton availability, change dramatically from shallow to mesophotic (30-150 m) reefs. Depth-generalist corals, those that occupy both of these two distinct ecosystems, are adapted to cope with such extremely diverse conditions. In this study, we investigated the trophic strategy of the depth-generalist hermatypic coral Stylophora pistillata and the ability of mesophotic colonies to adapt to shallow reefs. We compared symbiont genera composition, photosynthetic traits and the holobiont trophic position and carbon sources, calculated from amino acids compound-specific stable isotope analysis (AA-CSIA), of shallow, mesophotic and translocated corals. This species harbors different Symbiodiniaceae genera at the two depths: Cladocopium goreaui (dominant in mesophotic colonies) and Symbiodinium microadriaticum (dominant in shallow colonies) with a limited change after transplantation. This allowed us to determine which traits stem from hosting different symbiont species compositions across the depth gradient. Calculation of holobiont trophic position based on amino acid δ15N revealed that heterotrophy represents the same portion of the total energy budget in both depths, in contrast to the dogma that predation is higher in corals growing in low light conditions. Photosynthesis is the major carbon source to corals growing at both depths, but the photosynthetic rate is higher in the shallow reef corals, implicating both higher energy consumption and higher predation rate in the shallow habitat. In the corals transplanted from deep to shallow reef, we observed extensive photo-acclimation by the Symbiodiniaceae cells, including substantial cellular morphological modifications, increased cellular chlorophyll a, lower antennae to photosystems ratios and carbon signature similar to the local shallow colonies. In contrast, non-photochemical quenching remains low and does not increase to cope with the high light regime of the shallow reef. Furthermore, host acclimation is much slower in these deep-to-shallow transplanted corals as evident from the lower trophic position and tissue density compared to the shallow-water corals, even after long-term transplantation (18 months). Our results suggest that while mesophotic reefs could serve as a potential refuge for shallow corals, the transition is complex, as even after a year and a half the acclimation is only partial.

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Feeding increases the number of offspring but decreases parental investment of Red Sea coral Stylophora pistillata.

Publications

Feeding increases the number of offspring but decreases parental investment of Red Sea coral <i>Stylophora pistillata</i>.

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