Project description:Purpose: There is a dearth of knowledge regarding the molecular pathology of growth anomaly in corals. We investigated the gene expression profile of Montipora capitata metatranscriptomes from healthy and diseased (growth anomaly) coral colonies to elucidate differentially expressed genes. Methods: mRNA profiles of coral tissue (including symbionts) were generated from three different tissue states: healthy, affected and unaffected. Healthy tissue was collected from coral colonies not affected by growth anomaly. Affected tissue was collected from coral growth anomaly lesions. Unaffected tissue was collected from coral colonies affected by growth anomaly.
Project description:Twelve coral colonies of Montipora capitata were collected from patch reefs located in Kāne’ohe Bay, O’ahu, Hawai’i. Colonies were brought to shore where they were immediately split into two equally sized pieces, which were acclimated before bleaching. Half of each colony went to an increased water temperature treatment (30°C, bleaching treatment) and the other stayed at ambient temperature (25°C, nonbleached treatment) for three weeks. For the bleaching treatment, experimental tank temperatures were increased 2°C per day ( 1°C every 12 hours) for four days to a final temperature of 30°C. Samples were collected before bleaching (T1) and 24 hours after bleached colonies were returned to ambient temperature (T2), through 3 months post-bleaching (T6).
Project description:Generation of proteomic data from coral nubbins collected from a single Montipora capitata colony in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. Over a five-week period, the coral nubbins collected were exposed to ambient and thermal stress conditions, with data generated at three key time points designed to capture the response of the corals to bleaching. Additionally, nubbins from each wild colony were flash frozen directly from the field.
