Project description:Crustose coralline algae (CCA) are calcifying red macroalgae that play important ecological roles including stabilisation of reef frameworks and provision of settlement cues for a range of marine invertebrates. Previous research into the responses of CCA to ocean warming (OW) and ocean acidification (OA) have found magnitude of effect to be species-specific. Response to OW and OA could be linked to divergent underlying molecular processes across species. Here we show Sporolithon durum, a species that exhibits low sensitivity to climate stressors, had little change in metabolic performance and did not significantly alter the expression of any genes when exposed to temperature and pH perturbations. In contrast, Porolithon onkodes, a major coral reef builder, reduced photosynthetic rates and had a labile transcriptomic response with over 400 significantly differentially expressed genes, with differential regulation of genes relating to physiological processes such as carbon acquisition and metabolism. The differential gene expression detected in P. onkodes implicates possible key metabolic pathways, including the pentose phosphate pathway, in the stress response of this species. We suggest S. durum is more resistant to OW and OA than P. onkodes, which demonstrated a high sensitivity to climate stressors and may have limited ability for acclimatisation. Understanding changes in gene expression in relation to physiological processes of CCA could help us understand and predict how different species will respond to, and persist in, future ocean conditions predicted for 2100.
Project description:Two known settlement/metamorphosis inducing stimuli (crustose coralline algae, and ethanolic extract of crustose coralline algae) and one stimulus which just induces metamorphosis (LWamide) were used to stimulate competent planula larvae of the coral Acropora millepora. Samples were taken 0.5h, 4h and 12h post induction isolate the genes controlling settlement and metamorphosis in this coral.
Project description:This dataset includes two species of the encrusting red algae, Crustose coralline algae (CCA) collected from Kaneohe Bay Oahu and Moorea, French Polynesia by Dr. Raphael Ritson Williams and Dr. Zachary A. Quinlan. The majority of the samples were visually identified under direction scope as Hydrolithon reinboldii, while three samples were Titanoderum sp. Tissues were extracted in 80% LC MS/MS methanol and frozen at -80 Celsius degrees. A portion of this study was funded by NSF-OCE PRF grant #2308400 and NSF-OCE grant 2516814. Untargeted LC-MS/MS acquisition was performed on a Vanquish Flex UHPLC system coupled to an Orbitrap Exploris 240 (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bremen, Germany). Chromatographic separation was performed on a Kinetex 1.7 um 100 A pore size C18 reversed phase UHPLC column 150 x 2.1 mm (Phenomenex, Torrance, CA).
Project description:Inter- and intraspecific diversity in bacterial communities associated with two crustose coralline algae from the NW Mediterranean Sea
Project description:To assess how larvae of different ages vary in their responses to different settlement cues, we induced individual Amphimedon queenslandica larvae with one of three different settlement cues at 1.5, 3, 5, and 8 hours post emergence (hpe) from the adult sponge. The settlement cues were (1) the articulated coralline algae Amphiroa fragilissima, (2) the crustose coralline algae Mesophyllum sp., and (3) the filtered seawater (FSW) negative control. We used CEL-Seq2, an RNA-Sequencing approach (Hashimshony et al., 2016), to generate transcriptome data for a total of 144 individuals (larvae and settled post-larvae) at 2 hours post induction (hpi) to the different settlement cues.