Stony coral tissue loss disease induces transcriptional signatures of in situ degradation of dysfunctional Symbiodiniaceae

Kelsey M. Beavers, Emily W. Van Buren, Ashley M. Rossin, Madison A. Emery, Alex J. Veglia, Carly E. Karrick, Nicholas J. MacKnight, Bradford A. Dimos, Sonora S. Meiling, Tyler B. Smith, Amy Apprill, Erinn M. Muller, Daniel M. Holstein, Adrienne M. S. Correa, Marilyn E. Brandt and Laura D. Mydlarz ()
Additional contact information
Kelsey M. Beavers: University of Texas at Arlington
Emily W. Van Buren: University of Texas at Arlington
Ashley M. Rossin: Louisiana State University
Madison A. Emery: University of Texas at Arlington
Alex J. Veglia: Rice University
Carly E. Karrick: Rice University
Nicholas J. MacKnight: University of Texas at Arlington
Bradford A. Dimos: University of Texas at Arlington
Sonora S. Meiling: University of the Virgin Islands
Tyler B. Smith: University of the Virgin Islands
Amy Apprill: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Erinn M. Muller: Mote Marine Laboratory
Daniel M. Holstein: Louisiana State University
Adrienne M. S. Correa: Rice University
Marilyn E. Brandt: University of the Virgin Islands
Laura D. Mydlarz: University of Texas at Arlington

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), one of the most pervasive and virulent coral diseases on record, affects over 22 species of reef-building coral and is decimating reefs throughout the Caribbean. To understand how different coral species and their algal symbionts (family Symbiodiniaceae) respond to this disease, we examine the gene expression profiles of colonies of five species of coral from a SCTLD transmission experiment. The included species vary in their purported susceptibilities to SCTLD, and we use this to inform gene expression analyses of both the coral animal and their Symbiodiniaceae. We identify orthologous coral genes exhibiting lineage-specific differences in expression that correlate to disease susceptibility, as well as genes that are differentially expressed in all coral species in response to SCTLD infection. We find that SCTLD infection induces increased expression of rab7, an established marker of in situ degradation of dysfunctional Symbiodiniaceae, in all coral species accompanied by genus-level shifts in Symbiodiniaceae photosystem and metabolism gene expression. Overall, our results indicate that SCTLD infection induces symbiophagy across coral species and that the severity of disease is influenced by Symbiodiniaceae identity.

Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38612-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-38612-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38612-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().