Project description:Coral reefs are declining globally. Temperature anomalies disrupt coral-algal symbioses at the molecular level, causing bleaching and mortality events. In terrestrial mutualisms, diversity in pairings of host and symbiont individuals (genotypes) results in ecologically and evolutionarily relevant stress response differences. The extent to which such intraspecific diversity provides functional variation in coral-algal systems is unknown. Here we assessed functional diversity among unique pairings of coral and algal individuals (holobionts). We targeted six genetically distinct Acropora palmata coral colonies that all associated with a single, clonal Symbiodinium ‘fitti’ strain in a natural common garden. No other species of algae or other strains of S. ‘fitti’ could be detected in host tissues. When colony branches were experimentally exposed to cold stress, host genotype influenced the photochemical efficiency of the symbiont strain, buffering the stress response to varying degrees. Gene expression differences among host individuals with buffered vs. non-buffered symbiont responses included biochemical pathways that mediate iron availability and oxygen stress signaling—critical components of molecular interactions with photosynthetic symbionts. Spawning patterns among hosts reflected symbiont performance differences under stress. These data are some of the first to indicate that genetic interactions below the species level affect coral holobiont performance. Intraspecific diversity serves as an important but overlooked source of physiological variation in this system, contributing raw material available to natural selection. Note: in the final publication, only ambient and cold treatments are discussed, but there was an additional hot treatment for each genotype at 34C. Most colonies expired after 6 hours, so PAM data could not be collected. The microarray data from 3.5 hours are included here.
Project description:A recent algicidal mode indicates that fungal mycelia can wrap and eliminate almost all the co-cultivated algal cells within a short time. However, the regulation of molecular mechanism is rarely understood. Here, proteomic analysis was applied to investigate the algicidal process of Trametes versicolor F21a. Our results showed that 3,754 fungal proteins were identified, among which 2,809 unique proteins could be quantified during the process. 30 isoenzymes with the capacity of degradation biomass, belonging to Glycoside Hydrolases, Auxiliary Activities, Carbohydrate Esterases and Polysaccharide Lyases, were significantly up-regulated, suggesting that these enzymes probably employed synergistic mechanisms in degrading algal cells. Additionally, peptidase, exonuclease, manganese peroxidase and cytochrome c peroxidase were also up-regulated. 10% of the significantly up-regulated proteins were extracellular enzymes. Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis demonstrated that the enriched metabolic pathways mainly contained carbon metabolism, selenocompound metabolism, sulfur assimilation and metabolism, as well as several amino acid biosynthesis pathways, which implied that these pathways should play vital roles in the synthesis of needed nutrition for the fungal mycelia via components of algal cells. Moreover, the fungal NmrA-like transcriptional regulator which represses the nitrogen metabolite was also enriched and might be a key regulator in eliminating algal cells
Project description:The Lobaria pulmonaria holobiont consists of algal, fungal, cyanobacterial, and integrated diverse bacterial components and thrives in undisturbed, humid forests. We set out to investigate the role of the microbiome of L. pulmonaria in the adaptation of this ecologically sensitive lichen species to diverse climatic conditions. Our central hypothesis posited that microbiome composition and functionality aligns with continental-scale climatic parameters related to temperature and precipitation. In addition, we tested whether short-term weather dynamics, sampling season, and the genotypes of the fungal and algal partners influenced the variation in the lichen microbiome. Insights into compositional and functional changes within the microbiome were obtained using metaproteomics. Comparative examinations between Sub-Atlantic Lowland (SAL) and Alpine (ALP) regions unveiled the distinct impact of climate on microbiome functions.