Project description:Given the overwhelming evidence that symbiont genotypes differentially affect host processes such as growth, bleaching susceptibility, and nutrient acquisition, we set out to measure gene expression differences in fragments of Montastraea faveolata harboring two different clades of Symbiodinium. On the reefs near Puerto Morelos, México, colonies of M. faveolata are known to shift algal symbiont clade with depth, often associating with clade A at the top, clade B in the middle, and clade C near the bottom of the colony. By measuring photosynthetic efficiency and gene expression in control and heat-stressed fragments containing either clade B, clade C, or a mix of both, we found that: 1) the algal response to thermal stress is due to both host and algal factors; 2) fragments of M. faveolata express different genes in response to sub-bleaching thermal stress depending on algal genotype; 3) the overall effect of heat stress on coral gene expression is less significant than the effect of housing different zooxanthellae types. Overall, we present convincing evidence that different Symbiodinium clades may be functionally distinct, which in turn, greatly influences host gene expression.
Project description:Puerto Ricans are a racially admixed population, that consists of European, African and Native American ancestrie. Understanding eQTL patterns in Puerto Ricans should help us elucidate both regulation of gene expression and disease causation in racially admixed populations in general, and in Hispanic subgroups in particular.