Diurnal and nocturnal transcriptomic variation in the Caribbean staghorn coral, <i>Acropora cervicornis</i>

Hemond, Elizabeth M.; Vollmer, Steven V.

doi:10.1111/mec.13320

Cited by 32 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 82 publications

(217 reference statements)

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“…1). These clock genes included previously characterized diurnal genes (Brady et al 2011;Bertucci et al 2015;Hemond & Vollmer 2015;Kaniewska et al 2015;Oren et al 2015;Ruiz-Jones & Palumbi 2015) such as cryptochrome 1 and 2 (cry1 and cry2) and recently described genes such as PAR-bzips (bzip), clock-interacting circadian pacemaker (cipc), and the hairy-related transcription factor helt. The identified rbm38 gene has not previously been shown to function in clocks, but a related RRM gene, rbm4/lark, regulates circadian phase periodicity in Drosophila (Huang et al 2014) and likely functions in the Acropora clock.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Genes involved in calcium carbonate precipitation are more active in the daytime, as has been previously described (Bertucci et al . ; Hemond & Vollmer ; Kaniewska et al . ; Oren et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A combination of these cycles aligns as daylight length increases, activating transcription of TSH-beta and driving ovulation. While a number of studies have examined daily cycles of transcription in corals (Brady et al 2011;Bertucci et al 2015;Hemond & Vollmer 2015;Kaniewska et al 2015;Oren et al 2015;Ruiz-Jones & Palumbi 2015), the lack of data on lunar-associated cycles blocks our ability to detect potential cycle overlaps that may act in a similar manner to drive biological processes that are regulated by the moon, such as broadcast spawning. We report here an RNA-seq analysis of transcription in the reefbuilding coral Acropora gemmifera (Brook 1892) over an entire lunar month, under stabilized environmental conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Transcriptome dynamics over a lunar month in a broadcast spawning acroporid coral

et al. 2017

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On one night per year, at a specific point in the lunar cycle, one of the most extraordinary reproductive events on the planet unfolds as hundreds of millions of broadcast spawning corals release their trillions of gametes into the waters of the tropical seas. Each species spawns on a specific night within the lunar cycle, typically from full moon to third quarter moon, and in a specific time window after sunset. This accuracy is essential to achieve efficient fertilization in the vastness of the oceans. In this report, we use transcriptome sequencing at noon and midnight across an entire lunar cycle to explore how acroporid corals interpret lunar signals. The data were interrogated by both time-of-day-dependent and time-of-day-independent methods to identify different types of lunar cycles. Time-of-day methods found that genes associated with biological clocks and circadian processes change their diurnal cycles over the course of a synodic lunar cycle. Some genes have large differences between day and night at some lunar phases, but little or no diurnal differences at other phases. Many clock genes display an oscillation pattern indicative of phase shifts linked to the lunar cycle. Time-independent methods found that signal transduction, protein secretion and modification, cell cycle and ion transport change over the lunar timescale and peak at various phases of the moon. Together these data provide unique insights into how the moon impinges on coral transcription cycles and how lunar light may regulate circalunar timing systems and coral biology.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Genes involved in calcium carbonate precipitation are more active in the daytime, as has been previously described (Bertucci et al . ; Hemond & Vollmer ; Kaniewska et al . ; Oren et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Transcriptome dynamics over a lunar month in a broadcast spawning acroporid coral

et al. 2017

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“…Enzymes involved in glycolysis and several biosynthetic pathways are among the ones overexpressed during the night (Levy et al, 2011). Diel transcriptomic patterns of photoreceptors, putative circadian regulation genes, stress response genes, and metabolic genes were also observed in the coral Acropora cervicornis (Hemond and Vollmer, 2015). The production of microsporine-like aminoacids follows sunlight cycles, and it is speculated to protect corals from ultraviolet radiation damage (Yakovleva and Hidaka, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Bacterial Community Associated with the Reef Coral Mussismilia braziliensis's Momentum Boundary Layer over a Diel Cycle

et al. 2017

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Corals display circadian physiological cycles, changing from autotrophy during the day to heterotrophy during the night. Such physiological transition offers distinct environments to the microbial community associated with corals: an oxygen-rich environment during daylight hours and an oxygen-depleted environment during the night. Most studies of coral reef microbes have been performed on samples taken during the day, representing a bias in the understanding of the composition and function of these communities. We hypothesized that coral circadian physiology alters the composition and function of microbial communities in reef boundary layers. Here, we analyzed microbial communities associated with the momentum boundary layer (MBL) of the Brazilian endemic reef coral Mussismilia braziliensis during a diurnal cycle, and compared them to the water column. We determined microbial abundance and nutrient concentration in samples taken within a few centimeters of the coral's surface every 6 h for 48 h, and sequenced microbial metagenomes from a subset of the samples. We found that dominant taxa and functions in the coral MBL community were stable over the time scale of our sampling, with no significant shifts between night and day samples. Interestingly, the two water column metagenomes sampled 1 m above the corals were also very similar to the MBL metagenomes. When all samples were analyzed together, nutrient concentration significantly explained 40% of the taxonomic dissimilarity among dominant genera in the community. Functional profiles were highly homogenous and not significantly predicted by any environmental variables measured. Our data indicated that water flow may overrule the effects of coral physiology in the MBL bacterial community, at the scale of centimeters, and suggested that sampling resolution at the scale of millimeters may be necessary to address diurnal variation in community composition.

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“…The remaining 174 genes (p-value <.01) uniquely cycling in LD included light responsive genes (e.g., cryptochromes and rhodopsin) and signal transduction genes (e.g., protein kinase C and G-protein-coupled receptor). Several genes previously reported to exhibit rhythmic expression over a diel light cycle in cnidarians (Brady et al, 2011;Hemond & Vollmer, 2015;Hoadley, Szmant, & Pyott, 2011;Oren et al, 2015) showed expression patterns consistent with a 24hr rhythm in LD ( Figure 2; Table 1); Clock, Cry1a, Cry1b, PAR-bZIPa, PAR-bZIPc, a Hes/Hey-like transcription factor helt and a putative clock-interacting circadian pacemaker homolog (CiPC) were expressed with a significant circadian period of 24 hr and all had daytime peaks in expression except PAR-bZIPc (ZT = 18) and CiPC (ZT = 24; Table 1).…”

Section: Cycling Genes In Ldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcriptional remodelling upon light removal in a model cnidarian: Losses and gains in gene expression

Leach

Reitzel

2019

Molecular Ecology

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Organismal responses to light:dark cycles can result from two general processes: (a) direct response to light or (b) a free‐running rhythm (i.e., a circadian clock). Previous research in cnidarians has shown that candidate circadian clock genes have rhythmic expression in the presence of diel lighting, but these oscillations appear to be lost quickly after removal of the light cue. Here, we measure whole‐organism gene expression changes in 136 transcriptomes of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, entrained to a light:dark environment and immediately following light cue removal to distinguish two broadly defined responses in cnidarians: light entrainment and circadian regulation. Direct light exposure resulted in significant differences in expression for hundreds of genes, including more than 200 genes with rhythmic, 24‐hr periodicity. Removal of the lighting cue resulted in the loss of significant expression for 80% of these genes after 1 day, including most of the hypothesized cnidarian circadian genes. Further, 70% of these candidate genes were phase‐shifted. Most surprisingly, thousands of genes, some of which are involved in oxidative stress, DNA damage response and chromatin modification, had significant differences in expression in the 24 hr following light removal, suggesting that loss of the entraining cue may induce a cellular stress response. Together, our findings suggest that a majority of genes with significant differences in expression for anemones cultured under diel lighting are largely driven by the primary photoresponse rather than a circadian clock when measured at the whole animal level. These results provide context for the evolution of cnidarian circadian biology and help to disassociate two commonly confounded factors driving oscillating phenotypes.

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Diurnal and nocturnal transcriptomic variation in the Caribbean staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis

Cited by 32 publications

References 82 publications

Transcriptome dynamics over a lunar month in a broadcast spawning acroporid coral

Transcriptome dynamics over a lunar month in a broadcast spawning acroporid coral

Bacterial Community Associated with the Reef Coral Mussismilia braziliensis's Momentum Boundary Layer over a Diel Cycle

Transcriptional remodelling upon light removal in a model cnidarian: Losses and gains in gene expression

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