The enhanced expression of heat stress-related genes in scleractinian coral ‘Porites harrisoni’ during warm episodes as an intrinsic mechanism for adaptation in ‘the Persian Gulf’

Moghaddam, Sanaz; Shokri, Mohammad Reza; Tohidfar, Masoud

doi:10.1007/s00338-021-02100-2

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 115 publications

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“…One approach has been to examine coral populations that have adapted to present day extreme environments; for example, warm lagoons [11,12], intertidal pools [13,14] and thermally extreme seas [15,16]. Profiling coral biology from these so-called ‘natural laboratories’ has shown how numerous factors contribute to high heat tolerance, including rapid modifications in gene expression related to extracellular matrix formation and oxidative stress [17,18], heat-shock protein upregulation [19], but also rapid recovery to a pre-disturbance baseline level of these differentially expressed genes [20]. Other mechanisms include associations with heat-tolerant algal symbionts [5,15,21,22], and specific bacterial communities that may mitigate bleaching susceptibility [23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metabolomic signatures of corals thriving across extreme reef habitats reveal strategies of heat stress tolerance

et al. 2023

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Anthropogenic stressors continue to escalate worldwide, driving unprecedented declines in reef environmental conditions and coral health. One approach to better understand how corals can function in the future is to examine coral populations that thrive within present day naturally extreme habitats. We applied untargeted metabolomics (gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS)) to contrast metabolite profiles of Pocillopora acuta colonies from hot, acidic and deoxygenated mangrove environments versus those from adjacent reefs. Under ambient temperatures, P. acuta predominantly associated with endosymbionts of the genera Cladocopium (reef) or Durusdinium (mangrove), exhibiting elevated metabolism in mangrove through energy-generating and biosynthesis pathways compared to reef populations. Under transient heat stress, P. acuta endosymbiont associations were unchanged. Reef corals bleached and exhibited extensive shifts in symbiont metabolic profiles (whereas host metabolite profiles were unchanged). By contrast, mangrove populations did not bleach and solely the host metabolite profiles were altered, including cellular responses in inter-partner signalling, antioxidant capacity and energy storage. Thus mangrove P. acuta populations resist periodically high-temperature exposure via association with thermally tolerant endosymbionts coupled with host metabolic plasticity. Our findings highlight specific metabolites that may be biomarkers of heat tolerance, providing novel insight into adaptive coral resilience to elevated temperatures.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metabolomic signatures of corals thriving across extreme reef habitats reveal strategies of heat stress tolerance

et al. 2023

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“…To some extent, the coral species of the I-RSA can tolerate extreme thermal conditions [134,138,139], and some coping mechanisms found in corals of the I-RSA and M-RSA include upregulating the expression of heat stress-related genes [140] and hosting heattolerant algae [141][142][143][144][145]. Despite these adaptations, SST anomalies in the I-RSA have caused mass mortality events, as well as transforming the hard structure of reefs, through bleaching and the stunting of the growth of some species [76,[146][147][148][149].…”

Section: Corals and Coral Reefsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Regional Review of Marine and Coastal Impacts of Climate Change on the ROPME Sea Area

et al. 2021

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The Regional Organization for the Protection of the Marine Environment (ROPME) Sea Area (RSA) in the northern Indian Ocean, which comprises the Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the northern Arabian Sea, already experiences naturally extreme environmental conditions and incorporates one of the world’s warmest seas. There is growing evidence that climate change is already affecting the environmental conditions of the RSA, in areas including sea temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, and sea level, which are set to continue changing over time. The cumulative impacts of these changes on coastal and marine ecosystems and dependent societies are less well documented, but are likely to be significant, especially in the context of other human stressors. This review represents the first regional synthesis of observed and predicted climate change impacts on marine and coastal ecosystems across the ROPME Sea Area and their implications for dependent societies. Climate-driven ecological changes include loss of coral reefs due to bleaching and the decline of fish populations, while socio-economic impacts include physical impacts from sea-level rise and cyclones, risk to commercial wild capture fisheries, disruption to desalination systems and loss of tourism. The compilation of this review is aimed to support the development of targeted adaptation actions and to direct future research within the RSA.

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“…Variability in heat tolerance has been observed at many ecological levels, including between individuals, populations and species, and by reef region. For example, differences in the heat tolerance of corals have been observed across reefs globally, with coral populations present along the Persian Gulf having demonstrated very high thermal thresholds of ∼4°C above mean monthly temperatures (Kirk et al, 2018;Moghaddam et al, 2021;Savary et al, 2021). Northern GBR corals also demonstrate higher thermal tolerances compared with some central populations, in which heritable host genetic mechanisms play a role in the thermal resistance of these northern corals (Dixon et al, 2015;Quigley et al, 2020a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting selection–response gradients of heat tolerance in a widespread reef-building coral

Weeriyanun

Collins

Macadam

et al. 2022

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Ocean temperatures continue to rise owing to climate change, but it is unclear whether heat tolerance of marine organisms will keep pace with warming. Understanding how tolerance scales from individuals to species and quantifying adaptive potentials is essential to forecasting responses to warming. We reproductively crossed corals from a globally distributed species (Acropora tenuis) on the Great Barrier Reef (Australia) from three thermally distinct reefs to create 85 offspring lineages. Individuals were experimentally exposed to temperatures (27.5, 31 and 35.5°C) in adult and two critical early life stages (larval and settlement) to assess acquired heat tolerance via outcrossing of offspring phenotypes by comparing five physiological responses (photosynthetic yields, bleaching, necrosis, settlement and survival). Adaptive potentials and physiological reaction norms were calculated across three stages to integrate heat tolerance at different biological scales. Selective breeding improved larval survival to heat by 1.5–2.5× but did not result in substantial enhancement of settlement, although population crosses were significantly different. Under heat stress, adults were less variable compared with larval responses in warmer reefs than in the cooler reef. Adults and offspring also differed in their mean population responses, likely underpinned by heat stress imposing strong divergent selection on adults. These results have implications for downstream selection during reproduction, evidenced by variability in a conserved heat tolerance response across offspring lineages. These results inform our ability to forecast the impacts of climate change on wild populations of corals and will aid in developing novel conservation tools such as the assisted evolution of at-risk species.

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The enhanced expression of heat stress-related genes in scleractinian coral ‘Porites harrisoni’ during warm episodes as an intrinsic mechanism for adaptation in ‘the Persian Gulf’

Cited by 7 publications

References 115 publications

Metabolomic signatures of corals thriving across extreme reef habitats reveal strategies of heat stress tolerance

Metabolomic signatures of corals thriving across extreme reef habitats reveal strategies of heat stress tolerance

A Regional Review of Marine and Coastal Impacts of Climate Change on the ROPME Sea Area

Predicting selection–response gradients of heat tolerance in a widespread reef-building coral

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