Full-Length Transcriptomics Reveal the Gene Expression Profiles of Reef-Building Coral Pocillopora damicornis and Symbiont Zooxanthellae

Since the last century, episodes of coral reef bleaching and mortality have occurred almost annually in tropical or subtropical seas. When the temperature exceeds the tolerant limit of a coral–zooxanthellae holobiont, it induces physiological stress and disrupts the vulnerable fine-tuned balance bet...

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Published inDiversity (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 11; p. 543
Main Authors Guo, Zhuojun, Liao, Xin, Han, Tingyu, Chen, Junyuan, He, Chunpeng, Lu, Zuhong
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.11.2021
Subjects
Accuracy
Acidification
Algae
Biological research
Climate change
Coral bleaching
Coral reefs
Encyclopedias
Energy metabolism
full-length transcriptome
Gene expression
gene expression profile
Genes
Genetic engineering
Genomes
holobiont
Laboratories
Nutrition
Photosynthesis
Pocillopora damicornis
Reagents
reef-building coral
Stress (physiology)
Temperature tolerance
Transcriptomes
Transcriptomics
Zooxanthellae
United States > US
Red Sea
China
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Summary:Since the last century, episodes of coral reef bleaching and mortality have occurred almost annually in tropical or subtropical seas. When the temperature exceeds the tolerant limit of a coral–zooxanthellae holobiont, it induces physiological stress and disrupts the vulnerable fine-tuned balance between the two partners, leading to bleaching. The gene expression profiles of a scleractinian coral and its symbiotic zooxanthellae can offer important information with which to decipher this balanced relationship at the functional level of genes. Here, we sequence a full-length transcriptome of a well-known, common and frequently dominant reef-building coral, Pocillopora damicornis, to acquire gene expression information for the coral–zooxanthellae holobiont. To this end, we identify 21,926 and 465 unique genes in the coral and algal symbiont, respectively, and examine the functional enrichment among these genes based on GO (gene ontology) terms and KEGG (the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathways. The results show that the zooxanthellae provide for their coral host through energy and nutrition metabolism by photosynthesis, and that both the coral host and zooxanthellae have an anti-stress molecular mechanism, though the two parties have independent abilities to survive in the short term. This work sheds light on the valuable gene expression profile of a coral–zooxanthellae holobiont and provides grounds for further molecular biological research to support ecological protection work.
ISSN:1424-2818
1424-2818
DOI:10.3390/d13110543