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Trends in Ecology & Evolution Nov 2021The apparent ability of corals to acquire and maintain enhanced stress tolerance through a dose-dependent environmental memory, which may persist for multiple years, has... (Review)
Review
The apparent ability of corals to acquire and maintain enhanced stress tolerance through a dose-dependent environmental memory, which may persist for multiple years, has critical implications for coral reef conservation research. Such responses are variable across coral species and environmental stressors, with primed corals exhibiting a modified response to secondary stress exposures. While the mechanisms underlying coral memory responses are poorly understood, they likely involve both the coral host and microbiome. With advances in molecular technologies, it is now possible to investigate potential memory mechanisms in non-model organisms, including transcriptional regulation through epigenetic modifications. We integrate evidence of coral environmental memory and suggest future research directions to evaluate the potential for this process to enhance coral resilience under climate change.
Topics: Animals; Anthozoa; Climate Change; Coral Reefs
PubMed: 34366170
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.06.014 -
Microbiology and Molecular Biology... Dec 2022Stony corals build the framework of coral reefs, ecosystems of immense ecological and economic importance. The existence of these ecosystems is threatened by climate... (Review)
Review
Stony corals build the framework of coral reefs, ecosystems of immense ecological and economic importance. The existence of these ecosystems is threatened by climate change and other anthropogenic stressors that manifest in microbial dysbiosis such as coral bleaching and disease, often leading to coral mortality. Despite a significant amount of research, the mechanisms ultimately underlying these destructive phenomena, and what could prevent or mitigate them, remain to be resolved. This is mostly due to practical challenges in experimentation on corals and the highly complex nature of the coral holobiont that also includes bacteria, archaea, protists, and viruses. While the overall importance of these partners is well recognized, their specific contributions to holobiont functioning and their interspecific dynamics remain largely unexplored. Here, we review the potential of adopting model organisms as more tractable systems to address these knowledge gaps. We draw on parallels from the broader biological and biomedical fields to guide the establishment, implementation, and integration of new and emerging model organisms with the aim of addressing the specific needs of coral research. We evaluate the cnidarian models Hydra, Aiptasia, Cassiopea, and ; review the fast-evolving field of coral tissue and cell cultures; and propose a framework for the establishment of "true" tropical reef-building coral models. Based on this assessment, we also suggest future research to address key aspects limiting our ability to understand and hence improve the response of reef-building corals to future ocean conditions.
Topics: Animals; Anthozoa; Ecosystem; Coral Reefs; Bacteria; Archaea
PubMed: 36287022
DOI: 10.1128/mmbr.00053-22 -
Systematic Biology Jun 2021Anthozoan cnidarians (corals and sea anemones) include some of the world's most important foundation species, capable of building massive reef complexes that support...
Anthozoan cnidarians (corals and sea anemones) include some of the world's most important foundation species, capable of building massive reef complexes that support entire ecosystems. Although previous molecular phylogenetic analyses have revealed widespread homoplasy of the morphological characters traditionally used to define orders and families of anthozoans, analyses using mitochondrial genes or rDNA have failed to resolve many key nodes in the phylogeny. With a fully resolved, time-calibrated phylogeny for 234 species constructed from hundreds of ultraconserved elements and exon loci, we explore the evolutionary origins of the major clades of Anthozoa and some of their salient morphological features. The phylogeny supports reciprocally monophyletic Hexacorallia and Octocorallia, with Ceriantharia as the earliest diverging hexacorals; two reciprocally monophyletic clades of Octocorallia; and monophyly of all hexacoral orders with the exception of the enigmatic sea anemone Relicanthus daphneae. Divergence dating analyses place Anthozoa in the Cryogenian to Tonian periods (648-894 Ma), older than has been suggested by previous studies. Ancestral state reconstructions indicate that the ancestral anthozoan was a solitary polyp that had bilateral symmetry and lacked a skeleton. Colonial growth forms and the ability to precipitate calcium carbonate evolved in the Ediacaran (578 Ma) and Cambrian (503 Ma) respectively; these hallmarks of reef-building species have subsequently arisen multiple times independently in different orders. Anthozoans formed associations with photosymbionts by the Devonian (383 Ma), and photosymbioses have been gained and lost repeatedly in all orders. Together, these results have profound implications for the interpretation of the Precambrian environment and the early evolution of metazoans.[Bilateral symmetry; coloniality; coral; early metazoans; exon capture; Hexacorallia; Octocorallia photosymbiosis; sea anemone; ultraconserved elements.].
Topics: Animals; Anthozoa; Ecosystem; Genes, Mitochondrial; Phylogeny; Sea Anemones
PubMed: 33507310
DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syaa103 -
Applied and Environmental Microbiology Oct 2023Microbial interactions contribute significantly to coral health in the marine environment. Most beneficial associations have been described with their bacterial... (Review)
Review
Microbial interactions contribute significantly to coral health in the marine environment. Most beneficial associations have been described with their bacterial communities, but knowledge of beneficial associations between protozoan ciliates and corals is still lacking. Ciliates are important bacterial predators and provide nutrition to higher trophic-level organisms. The mucus secreted by corals and the microenvironment of the coral surface layer attract ciliates based on their food preferences. The mixotrophic and heterotrophic ciliates play a major role in nutrient cycling by increasing nitrogen, phosphorus, and extractable sulfur, which can enhance the proliferation of coral beneficial microbe. Besides, bacterial predator ciliates reduce the pathogenic bacterial population that infects the coral and also act as bioindicators for assessing the toxicity of the reef ecosystem. Thus, these ciliates can be used as a beneficial partner in influencing coral health and resilience under various stress conditions. Herein, we explore the urgent need to understand the complex beneficial interactions of ciliates that may occur in the coral reef ecosystem.
Topics: Animals; Anthozoa; Ecosystem; Coral Reefs; Symbiosis; Microbial Interactions; Bacteria
PubMed: 37702497
DOI: 10.1128/aem.01217-23 -
Nature Jun 2023
Topics: Animals; Anthozoa; Aquatic Organisms; Biodiversity; Climate Change; History, 21st Century; Research; Ships; Coral Reefs
PubMed: 37280289
DOI: 10.1038/d41586-023-01826-z -
Proceedings. Biological Sciences Mar 2021Climate-driven reef decline has prompted the development of next-generation coral conservation strategies, many of which hinge on the movement of adaptive variation...
Climate-driven reef decline has prompted the development of next-generation coral conservation strategies, many of which hinge on the movement of adaptive variation across genetic and environmental gradients. This process is limited by our understanding of how genetic and genotypic drivers of coral bleaching will manifest in different environmental conditions. We reciprocally transplanted 10 genotypes of across eight sites along a 60 km span of the Florida Reef Tract and documented significant genotype × environment interactions in bleaching response during the severe 2015 bleaching event. Performance relative to site mean was significantly different between genotypes and can be mostly explained by ensemble models of correlations with genetic markers. The high explanatory power was driven by significant enrichment of loci associated DNA repair, cell signalling and apoptosis. No genotypes performed above (or below) bleaching average at all sites, so genomic predictors can provide practitioners with 'confidence intervals' about the chance of success in novel habitats. These data have important implications for assisted gene flow and managed relocation, and their integration with traditional active restoration.
Topics: Animals; Anthozoa; Coral Reefs; Florida; Gene-Environment Interaction; Genotype
PubMed: 33653132
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0177 -
Current Biology : CB Jan 2021Artificial light at night (ALAN) can have negative impacts on the health of humans and ecosystems. Marine organisms, including coral reefs in particular, rely on the...
Artificial light at night (ALAN) can have negative impacts on the health of humans and ecosystems. Marine organisms, including coral reefs in particular, rely on the natural light cycles of sunlight and moonlight to regulate various physiological, biological, and behavioral processes. Here, we demonstrate that light pollution caused delayed gametogenesis and unsynchronized gamete release in two coral species, Acropora millepora and Acropora digitifera, from the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Given the urbanization along major coasts, light pollution could thus further threaten coral communities' populations, which are already under severe degradation. A worldwide-modeled light pollution impact assessment is provided, which can help incorporate an important variable in coral reef conservation planning.
Topics: Animals; Anthozoa; Conservation of Natural Resources; Coral Reefs; Gametogenesis; Lighting; Pacific Ocean; Photoperiod; Urbanization
PubMed: 33157030
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.10.039 -
Integrative and Comparative Biology Oct 2019Historically mechanisms with which basal animals such as reef-building corals use to respond to changing and increasingly stressful environments have remained elusive.... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
Historically mechanisms with which basal animals such as reef-building corals use to respond to changing and increasingly stressful environments have remained elusive. However, the increasing availability of genomic and transcriptomic data from these organisms has provided fundamental insights into the biology of these critically important ecosystem engineers. Notably, insights into cnidarians gained in the post-genomics age have revealed a surprisingly complex immune system which bears a surprising level of similarity with the vertebrate innate immune system. This system has been critically linked to how corals respond to the two most prominent threats on a global scale, emerging coral diseases and increasing water temperature, which are recognized cellularly as either foreign or domestic threats, respectively. These threats can arise from pathogenic microbes or internal cellular dysfunction, underscoring the need to further understand mechanisms corals use to sense and respond to threats to their cellular integrity. In this investigation and meta-analysis, we utilize resources only recently available in the post-genomic era to identify and characterize members of an underexplored class of molecules known as NOD-like receptors in the endangered Caribbean coral Orbicella faveolata. We then leverage these data to identify pathways possibly mediated by NLRs in both O. faveolata and the ecologically important branching coral Acropora digitifera. Overall, we find support that this class of proteins may provide a mechanistic link to how reef-building corals respond to threats both foreign and domestic.
Topics: Animals; Anthozoa; Endangered Species; Evolution, Molecular; Immunity, Innate; NLR Proteins; Stress, Physiological
PubMed: 31236558
DOI: 10.1093/icb/icz111 -
Zeitschrift Fur Naturforschung. C,... Jul 2022Further investigation of the residual bioactive compounds produced by the soft coral -derived sp. MMA afforded five new compounds assigned as 9-methoxy-penicyrone A (),...
Further investigation of the residual bioactive compounds produced by the soft coral -derived sp. MMA afforded five new compounds assigned as 9-methoxy-penicyrone A (), 9-methoxy-penicyrone B (), 3-hydroxy-2,2,4-trimethyl-pentyl ester (), 3-hydroxy-1-isopropyl-2,2-dimethyl-propyl ester (), and 3-isobutyryloxy-2,2,4-trimethyl-pentyl linoleate (). Additional six known compounds were isolated: penicyrones A-B (, ), 4-(2-hydroxy-3-butynoxy)benzoic acid (), cyclopenol (), aspermytin A (), and aurantiomide A (). Structures of the new compounds () were identified by 1D (H & C) and 2 D (H-H COSY, HMBC and NOESY) NMR and HRESI-MS spectroscopic data. Biologically, the antimicrobial activities of the obtained compounds were studied as well.
Topics: Animals; Anthozoa; Esters; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Molecular Structure; Penicillium
PubMed: 34905669
DOI: 10.1515/znc-2021-0236 -
Science Immunology Dec 2020Coral gasdermin E is cleaved by activated caspase-3 to induce pyroptosis, a form of inflammatory programmed cell death, in response to a bacterial pathogen (see the...
Coral gasdermin E is cleaved by activated caspase-3 to induce pyroptosis, a form of inflammatory programmed cell death, in response to a bacterial pathogen (see the related Research Article by Jiang .).
Topics: Animals; Anthozoa; Coral Reefs; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Pyroptosis
PubMed: 33277372
DOI: 10.1126/sciimmunol.abf0905