Gene expression of settled and metamorphosed Orbicella faveolata during establishment of symbiosis

, , , , , , ,
1 Red Sea Research Center, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
2 Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
3 Department of Biology, Institute of Microbiology ETH-Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
4 Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
5 Technical Applications, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Calfornia, United States
6 Department of Geology, University of Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, United States
7 Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States
8 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City, Panama, United States
9 Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, United States
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.3283v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Genetics, Marine Biology, Molecular Biology, Zoology
Keywords
gene expression, symbiodinium, coral, microarray, symbiosis, Orbicella faveolata
Copyright
© 2017 O'Rourke et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
O'Rourke A, Ohdera A, Sunagawa S, Diaz-Almeyda EM, DeSalvo MK, Coffroth MA, Voolstra CR, Medina M. 2017. Gene expression of settled and metamorphosed Orbicella faveolata during establishment of symbiosis. PeerJ Preprints 5:e3283v1

Abstract

Corals rely on a symbiosis with dinoflagellate algae (Symbiodinium spp.) to thrive in nutrient poor tropical oceans. However, the coral-algal symbiosis can break down during bleaching events, potentially leading to coral death. While genome-wide expression studies have shown the genes associated with the breakdown of this partnership, the full conglomerate of genes responsible for the establishment and maintenance of a healthy symbiosis remains unknown. Results from previous studies suggested little transcriptomic change associated with the establishment of symbiosis. We examined the transcriptomic response of the coral Orbicella faveolata in the presence (symbiotic) and absence (aposymbiotic) of Symbiodinium minutum, one of its associated symbionts. 9 days post-metamorphic aposymbiotic coral polyps of O. faveolata were compared to symbiotic coral polyps and the subsequent differential gene expression between control and treatment was quantified using cDNA microarray technology. Coral polyps exhibited differential expression of genes associated with nutrient metabolism and development, providing insight into control of pathways as a result of symbiosis driving early polyp growth. Furthermore, genes associated with lysosomal fusion were also upregulated, suggesting host regulation of symbiont densities soon after infection.

Author Comment

This is a preprint submission to PeerJ.

Supplemental Information

Table S1

The list of all annotated genes that were found to be significantly differentially expressed by microarray (FDR ≤ 0.05).

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.3283v1/supp-1