The proteomic response of the reef coral Pocillopora acuta to experimentally elevated temperatures
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Abstract
Although most reef-building corals live near the upper threshold of their thermotolerance, some scleractinians are resilient to temperature increases. For instance, Pocillopora acuta specimens from an upwelling habitat in Southern Taiwan survived a 9-month experimental exposure to 30°C, a temperature hypothesized to induce stress. To gain a greater understanding of the molecular pathways underlying such high-temperature acclimation, the protein profiles of experimental controls incubated at 27°C were compared to those of conspecific P. acuta specimens exposed to 30°C for two, four, or eight weeks, and differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were removed from the protein gels and sequenced with mass spectrometry. Sixty unique DEPs were uncovered across both eukaryotic compartments of the P. acuta-dinoflagellate (genus Symbiodinium) mutualism, and Symbiodinium were more likely to up-regulate protein expression in response to high temperature exposure than the coral hosts in which they resided at the 2-week sampling time. Furthermore, different cellular pathways were affected by elevated temperature exposure in each compartment; Symbiodinium tended to up-regulate the expression of proteins involved in the cellular stress response, whereas the differentially expressed host coral proteome featured numerous proteins involved in cytoskeletal structure, immunity, and metabolism. These proteome-scale data suggest that the coral host and its intracellular dinoflagellates have differing cellular strategies for acclimating to elevated temperatures.
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2017. The proteomic response of the reef coral Pocillopora acuta to experimentally elevated temperatures. PeerJ Preprints 5:e3252v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3252v1Author comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
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Supplemental Information
Peptide sequences for differentially expressed proteins identified at the two-week sampling time
The 13 and 25 unique proteins over-expressed after two weeks by samples of the control (C) and high temperature (H) treatments, respectively, were included. Additional details of the sequenced proteins can be found in the main text (Table 2). The compartment of origin has been mentioned next to the spot number except when it could not be determined. Sym=Symbiodinium.
Peptide sequences for the differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) identified at the four-week sampling time
The 8 and 4 proteins over-expressed after four weeks by samples of the control (C) and high temperature (H) treatments, respectively, were included. Additional details of the sequenced proteins can be found in the main text (Table 3). No unique DEPs were identified from spots H5 and H6. The compartment of origin has been included next to the spot number. Sym=Symbiodinium.
Peptide sequences for the differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) identified at the eight-week sampling time
The 6 and 19 proteins over-expressed after four weeks by samples of the control (C) and high temperature (H) treatments, respectively, were included. Additional details of the sequenced proteins can be found in the main text (Table 4). The compartment of origin has been included next to the spot number. Sym=Symbiodinium. bact=bacterial.
Additional Information
Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Author Contributions
Anderson B Mayfield conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Yi-Jyun Chen performed the experiments.
Chi-Yu Lu performed the experiments, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools.
Chii-Shiarng Chen contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools.
Field Study Permissions
The following information was supplied relating to field study approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers):
A permit for coral collection was issued by Taiwan's Kenting National Park (0992900842).
Data Deposition
The following information was supplied regarding data availability:
All data files obtained from the mass spectrometer can be downloaded from the transcriptome+proteome server for the model coral used in this work (Pocillopora acuta): http://symbiont.iis.sinica.edu.tw/coral_pdltte/static/html/index.html#stat. Also, the protein sequences have all been included in supplemental tables.
Funding
This work was funded by a grant from the United States National Science Foundation (OISE-0852960 to ABM). ABM was also funded by a postdoctoral research fellowship from the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.