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Localized outbreak of attached diatoms on the coral Montipora due to low-temperature stress.

ABSTRACT: A short-term, localized outbreak of diatoms attached to live corals was observed along the coast of Sesoko Island, Okinawa, Japan in February, 2011. Diatoms are recognized as brown patches in the initial stage, becoming fluffy encrustations and resulting in complete or partial coral death. Attached diatoms, including Licmophora, Climacosphenia, Ardissonea and others, attached and overgrew exclusively Montipora corals, which are dominant corals in some parts of Sesoko reef. Heavily-covered colonies or branches died. The rate of affected corals reached 80% in the worst-affected area. Microscopic observation showed that most diatoms settled directly with polysaccharide stalks or pads onto the partly-bared skeleton of coral branches, although some settled on coral soft tissues. Although no similar phenomenon was reported from other areas of Japan, cold-water events might have important roles in coral weakening, as a consequence, enabling diatom attachment on corals, thus leading to coral death in this area.

SUBMITTER: Yamashiro H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3412319 | biostudies-other | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:Ubiquitination is a reversible protein modification involved in various cellular processes in eukaryotic cells. Deubiquitinating enzymes, the proteins responsible for the removal of ubiquitin, act as essential regulators to maintain ubiquitin homeostasis and to exquisitely regulate protein degradation via the ubiquitination pathway. Cryptococcus neoformans is an important basidiomycete pathogen that causes life-threatening meningoencephalitis primarily within the immunocompromised population. In order to understand the possible influence deubiquitinating enzymes have on growth and virulence of the model pathogenic yeast Cryptococcus neoformans, we generated deletion mutants of 7 putative deubiquitinase genes. Compared to other deubiquitinating enzyme mutants, a ubp5M-bM-^HM-^F mutant exhibited severely attenuated virulence and many distinct phenotypes, including decreased capsule formation, hypomelanization, defective sporulation, and elevated sensitivity to several external stressors (such as high temperature, oxidative and nitrosative stresses, high salts, and antifungal agents). Ubp5 appears to be the major deubiquitinating enzyme in C. neoformans for maintaining a pool of free ubiquitin for stress responses, supports the evolutionary divergence of Cryptococcus sp. from the model yeast S. cerevisiae, and provides an important paradigm for understanding the potential role of deubiquitination in virulence by other pathogenic fungi. In addition, other putative deubiquitinase mutants (doa4M-bM-^HM-^F and ubp13M-bM-^HM-^F) exhibit similar phenotypes to the ubp5M-bM-^HM-^F mutant, illustrating possible functional overlap among deubiquitinating enzymes in C. neoformans. Certain functioning deubiquitinating enzymes are essential for the virulence composite of C. neoformans and provide an additional yeast survival and propagation advantage in the host. In this study, transcription profiles of ubp5 mutant and WT Cryptococcus neoformans strains were compared in a dye-swap experiment following 1hr exposure to either 30C or 37C.

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Localized outbreak of attached diatoms on the coral Montipora due to low-temperature stress.

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