Differential gene expression during thermal stress and bleaching in the Caribbean coral Montastraea faveolata

Authors: DESALVO, M. K.¹; VOOLSTRA, C. R.¹; SUNAGAWA, S.¹; SCHWARZ, J. A.²; STILLMAN, J. H.³; COFFROTH, M. A.⁴; SZMANT, A. M.⁵; MEDINA, M.¹

Source: Molecular Ecology, Volume 17, Number 17, September 2008 , pp. 3952-3971(20)

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $48.00 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

The declining health of coral reefs worldwide is likely to intensify in response to continued anthropogenic disturbance from coastal development, pollution, and climate change. In response to these stresses, reef-building corals may exhibit bleaching, which marks the breakdown in symbiosis between coral and zooxanthellae. Mass coral bleaching due to elevated water temperature can devastate coral reefs on a large geographical scale. In order to understand the molecular and cellular basis of bleaching in corals, we have measured gene expression changes associated with thermal stress and bleaching using a complementary DNA microarray containing 1310 genes of the Caribbean coral Montastraea faveolata. In a first experiment, we identified differentially expressed genes by comparing experimentally bleached M. faveolata fragments to control non-heat-stressed fragments. In a second experiment, we identified differentially expressed genes during a time course experiment with four time points across 9 days. Results suggest that thermal stress and bleaching in M. faveolata affect the following processes: oxidative stress, Ca²⁺ homeostasis, cytoskeletal organization, cell death, calcification, metabolism, protein synthesis, heat shock protein activity, and transposon activity. These results represent the first medium-scale transcriptomic study focused on revealing the cellular foundation of thermal stress-induced coral bleaching. We postulate that oxidative stress in thermal-stressed corals causes a disruption of Ca²⁺ homeostasis, which in turn leads to cytoskeletal and cell adhesion changes, decreased calcification, and the initiation of cell death via apoptosis and necrosis.

Keywords: bleaching; coral; gene expression; microarray; thermal stress

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2008.03879.x

Affiliations: 1: School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, PO Box 2039, Merced, CA 95344, USA, 2: Department of Biology, Vassar College, 124 Raymond Avenue, Box 731, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604, USA, 3: Romberg Tiburon Center and Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, 3152 Paradise Drive, Tiburon, CA 94920, USA, 4: Graduate Program in Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour and Department of Geology, State University of New York at Buffalo, 447 Hochstetter Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA, 5: Center for Marine Science, University of North Carolina Wilmington, 5600 Marvin K. Moss Lane, Wilmington, NC 28409, USA

Publication date: 2008-09-01

Differential gene expression during thermal stress and bleaching in the Caribbean coral Montastraea faveolata

Buy & download fulltext article:

Tools

Key

Text size:

Useful pages