Extensive transcriptional variation poses a challenge to thermal stress biomarker development for endangered corals
| Autor: | Erich Bartels, Caitlin Lustic, Ken Nedimyer, Diego Lirman, Stephanie Schopmeyer, Iliana B. Baums, Todd C. LaJeunesse, John Everett Parkinson, Meghann K. Devlin-Durante |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Genetic Markers
Thermotolerance 0301 basic medicine Conservation genetics Conservation of Natural Resources Climate Change Coral Population 03 medical and health sciences Symbiodinium Stress Physiological Genetics Animals Acropora education Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics geography education.field_of_study geography.geographical_feature_category biology Ecology Endangered Species Temperature Genetic Variation Coral reef Anthozoa biology.organism_classification 030104 developmental biology Threatened species Florida Adaptation |
| Zdroj: | Molecular Ecology. 27:1103-1119 |
| ISSN: | 1365-294X 0962-1083 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/mec.14517 |
| Popis: | As climate changes, sea surface temperature anomalies that negatively impact coral reef organisms continue to increase in frequency and intensity. Yet, despite widespread coral mortality, genetic diversity remains high even in those coral species listed as threatened. While this is good news in many ways, it presents a challenge for the development of biomarkers that can identify resilient or vulnerable genotypes. Taking advantage of three coral restoration nurseries in Florida that serve as long-term common garden experiments, we exposed over 30 genetically distinct Acropora cervicornis colonies to hot and cold temperature shocks seasonally and measured pooled gene expression responses using RNAseq. Targeting a subset of 20 genes, we designed a high-throughput qPCR array to quantify expression in all individuals separately under each treatment with the goal of identifying predictive and/or diagnostic thermal stress biomarkers. We observed extensive transcriptional variation in the population, suggesting abundant raw material is available for adaptation via natural selection. However, this high variation made it difficult to correlate gene expression changes with colony performance metrics such as growth, mortality and bleaching susceptibility. Nevertheless, we identified several promising diagnostic biomarkers for acute thermal stress that may improve coral restoration and climate change mitigation efforts in the future. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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