Genotype by environment interactions in coral bleaching.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Drury C
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7934956 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Global environmental change has the potential to disrupt well established species interactions, with impacts on nutrient cycling and ecosystem function. On coral reefs, fish living within the branches of coral colonies can promote coral performance, and it has been hypothesized that the enhanced water flow and nutrients provided by fish to corals could ameliorate coral bleaching. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of small, aggregating damselfish on the health of their host corals (physiology, recovery, and survival) before, during, and after a thermal-bleaching event. When comparing coral colonies with and without fish, those with resident fish exhibited higher Symbiodinium densities and chlorophyll in both field and experimentally-induced bleaching conditions, and higher protein concentrations in field colonies. Additionally, colonies with damselfish in aquaria exhibited both higher photosynthetic efficiency (FV/FM) during bleaching stress and post-bleaching recovery, compared to uninhabited colonies. These results demonstrate that symbiotic damselfishes, and the services they provide, translate into measureable impacts on coral tissue, and can influence coral bleaching susceptibility/resilience and recovery. By mediating how external abiotic stressors influence coral colony health, damselfish can affect the functional responses of these interspecific interactions in a warming ocean.
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Project description:We tested the thermal tolerance of coral larvae with heat-evolved and wild-type strains and explored the molecular mechanisms for the differential thermal tolerance with gene expression patterns. This archive provides the raw data of the RNA sequencing.
2020-05-21 | GSE133082 | GEO
Project description:Coral bleaching is the single largest global threat to coral reefs worldwide. Integrating the diverse body of work on coral bleaching is critical to understanding and combating this global problem. Yet investigating the drivers, patterns, and processes of coral bleaching poses a major challenge. A recent review of published experiments revealed a wide range of experimental variables used across studies. Such a wide range of approaches enhances discovery, but without full transparency in the experimental and analytical methods used, can also make comparisons among studies challenging. To increase comparability but not stifle innovation, we propose a common framework for coral bleaching experiments that includes consideration of coral provenance, experimental conditions, and husbandry. For example, reporting the number of genets used, collection site conditions, the experimental temperature offset(s) from the maximum monthly mean (MMM) of the collection site, experimental light conditions, flow, and the feeding regime will greatly facilitate comparability across studies. Similarly, quantifying common response variables of endosymbiont (Symbiodiniaceae) and holobiont phenotypes (i.e., color, chlorophyll, endosymbiont cell density, mortality, and skeletal growth) could further facilitate cross-study comparisons. While no single bleaching experiment can provide the data necessary to determine global coral responses of all corals to current and future ocean warming, linking studies through a common framework as outlined here, would help increase comparability among experiments, facilitate synthetic insights into the causes and underlying mechanisms of coral bleaching, and reveal unique bleaching responses among genets, species, and regions. Such a collaborative framework that fosters transparency in methods used would strengthen comparisons among studies that can help inform coral reef management and facilitate conservation strategies to mitigate coral bleaching worldwide.
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Project description:BackgroundThe positive effects of exposing corals to microorganisms have been reported though how the benefits are conferred are poorly understood. Here, we isolated an actinobacterial strain (SCSIO 13291) from Pocillopora damicornis with capabilities to synthesize antioxidants, vitamins, and antibacterial and antiviral compounds supported with phenotypic and/or genomic evidence. Strain SCSIO 13291 was labeled with 5 (and - 6)-carboxytetramethylrhodamine, succinimidyl ester and the labeled cell suspension directly inoculated onto the coral polyp tissues when nubbins were under thermal stress in a mesocosm experiment. We then visualized the labelled bacterial cells and analyzed the coral physiological, transcriptome and microbiome to elucidate the effect this strain conferred on the coral holobiont under thermal stress.ResultsSubsequent microscopic observations confirmed the presence of the bacterium attached to the coral polyps. Addition of the SCSIO 13291 strain reduced signs of bleaching in the corals subjected to heat stress. At the same time, alterations in gene expression, which were involved in reactive oxygen species and light damage mitigation, attenuated apoptosis and exocytosis in addition to metabolite utilization, were observed in the coral host and Symbiodiniaceae populations. In addition, the coral associated bacterial community altered with a more stable ecological network for samples inoculated with the bacterial strain.ConclusionsOur results provide insights into the benefits of a putative actinobacterial probiotic strain that mitigate coral bleaching signs. This study suggests that the inoculation of bacteria can potentially directly benefit the coral holobiont through conferring metabolic activities or through indirect mechanisms of suppling additional nutrient sources.
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Project description:Climate change and consequent coral bleaching are causing the disappearance of reef-building corals worldwide. While bleaching episodes significantly impact shallow waters, little is known about their impact on mesophotic coral communities. We studied the prevalence of coral bleaching two to three months after a heat stress event, along an extreme depth range from 6 to 90 m in French Polynesia. Bayesian modelling showed a decreasing probability of bleaching of all coral genera over depth, with little to no bleaching observed at lower mesophotic depths (greater than or equal to 60 m). We found that depth-generalist corals benefit more from increasing depth than depth-specialists (corals with a narrow depth range). Our data suggest that the reduced prevalence of bleaching with depth, especially from shallow to upper mesophotic depths (40 m), had a stronger relation with the light-irradiance attenuation than temperature. While acknowledging the geographical and temporal variability of the role of mesophotic reefs as spatial refuges during thermal stress, we ought to understand why coral bleaching reduces with depth. Future studies should consider repeated monitoring and detailed ecophysiological and environmental data. Our study demonstrated how increasing depth may offer a level of protection and that lower mesophotic communities could escape the impacts of a thermal bleaching event.
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Project description:To assess plasticity in genetic regulation of gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana, genome wide gene expression variation was analyzed in a Ler/Cvi recombinant inbred line (RIL) population treated with low-light. The variation in expression could be explained for many genes by expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs), which were compared to a previous genetical genomics study in the same untreated population. Please note Characteristics[StrainOrLine] is the population of 162 recombinant inbred lines between the accessions Ler x Cvi. Ler and Cvi are the names of the parental accessions.
2013-03-01 | E-MTAB-1357 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Mass bleaching events are predicted to occur annually later this century. Nevertheless, it remains unknown whether corals will be able to recover between annual bleaching events. Using a combined tank and field experiment, we simulated annual bleaching by exposing three Caribbean coral species (Porites divaricata, Porites astreoides and Orbicella faveolata) to elevated temperatures for 2.5 weeks in 2 consecutive years. The impact of annual bleaching stress on chlorophyll a, energy reserves, calcification, and tissue C and N isotopes was assessed immediately after the second bleaching and after both short- and long-term recovery on the reef (1.5 and 11 months, respectively). While P. divaricata and O. faveolata were able to recover from repeat bleaching within 1 year, P. astreoides experienced cumulative damage that prevented full recovery within this time frame, suggesting that repeat bleaching had diminished its recovery capacity. Specifically, P. astreoides was not able to recover protein and carbohydrate concentrations. As energy reserves promote bleaching resistance, failure to recover from annual bleaching within 1 year will likely result in the future demise of heat-sensitive coral species.
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Project description:Ecological damage from periodic environmental extremes is often repaired in resilient ecosystems, but the rate of return to a non-damaged state is critical. Measures of recovery of communities include biomass, productivity and diversity, while measures of recovery of individuals tend to focus on physiological conditions and the return to normal metabolic functioning. Transcriptomics offers a window into the entire physiology of the organism under stress and can represent a holistic view of organismal recovery. In this study, we track the recovery of seven colonies of Acropora hyacinthus following a natural bleaching event. We identified a large environmental stress response in the field that involved approximately 20% of the host transcriptome. The transcriptome remained largely perturbed for at least six months after temperatures had cooled and four months after symbiont populations had recovered. Moreover, a small set of genes did not recover to previous expression levels even 12 months after the event, about the time that normal growth rates resumed. This study is among the first to incorporate transcriptomics into a longitudinal dataset of recovery from environmental stress. The data demonstrate large and lasting effects on coral physiology long after environmental conditions return to normal and symbiont populations recover.
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Project description:Ocean warming is resulting in increased occurrence of mass coral bleaching; a response in which the intracellular algal endosymbionts (Symbiodinium sp.) are expelled from the coral host due to physiological stress. This detrimental process is often attributed to overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that leak out of the endosymbionts and causes damage to the host cell, though direct evidence validating this link is limited. Here, for the first time, we used confocal microscopy and fluorescent dyes to investigate if endosymbiont ROS production significantly and predictably affects physiological parameters in its host cell. Heat treatment resulted in a 60% reduction in coral symbiont density, a ~70% increase in median endosymbiont ROS and a small reduction in photosystem efficiency (FV/FM, 11%), indicating absence of severe light stress. Notably, no other physiological parameters were affected in either endosymbionts or host cells, including reduced glutathione and ROS-induced lipid peroxidation. Taken together, the increase in endosymbiont ROS could not be linked to physiological damage in either partner, suggesting that oxidative stress is unlikely to have been the driver for symbiont expulsion in this study.
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