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Williams A. Multiomics data integration, limitations, and prospects to reveal the metabolic activity of the coral holobiont. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 2024; 100:fiae058. [PMID: 38653719 PMCID: PMC11067971 DOI: 10.1093/femsec/fiae058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2023] [Revised: 03/25/2024] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 04/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Since their radiation in the Middle Triassic period ∼240 million years ago, stony corals have survived past climate fluctuations and five mass extinctions. Their long-term survival underscores the inherent resilience of corals, particularly when considering the nutrient-poor marine environments in which they have thrived. However, coral bleaching has emerged as a global threat to coral survival, requiring rapid advancements in coral research to understand holobiont stress responses and allow for interventions before extensive bleaching occurs. This review encompasses the potential, as well as the limits, of multiomics data applications when applied to the coral holobiont. Synopses for how different omics tools have been applied to date and their current restrictions are discussed, in addition to ways these restrictions may be overcome, such as recruiting new technology to studies, utilizing novel bioinformatics approaches, and generally integrating omics data. Lastly, this review presents considerations for the design of holobiont multiomics studies to support lab-to-field advancements of coral stress marker monitoring systems. Although much of the bleaching mechanism has eluded investigation to date, multiomic studies have already produced key findings regarding the holobiont's stress response, and have the potential to advance the field further.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda Williams
- Microbial Biology Graduate Program, Rutgers University, 76 Lipman Drive, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, United States
- Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rutgers University, 76 Lipman Drive, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, United States
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Villafranca N, Changsut I, Diaz de Villegas S, Womack H, Fuess LE. Characterization of trade-offs between immunity and reproduction in the coral species Astrangia poculata. PeerJ 2023; 11:e16586. [PMID: 38077420 PMCID: PMC10702360 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16586] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Accepted: 11/14/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Living organisms face ubiquitous pathogenic threats and have consequently evolved immune systems to protect against potential invaders. However, many components of the immune system are physiologically costly to maintain and engage, often drawing resources away from other organismal processes such as growth and reproduction. Evidence from a diversity of systems has demonstrated that organisms use complex resource allocation mechanisms to manage competing needs and optimize fitness. However, understanding of resource allocation patterns is limited across taxa. Cnidarians, which include ecologically important organisms like hard corals, have been historically understudied in the context of resource allocations. Improving understanding of resource allocation-associated trade-offs in cnidarians is critical for understanding future ecological dynamics in the face of rapid environmental change. Methods Here, we characterize trade-offs between constitutive immunity and reproduction in the facultatively symbiotic coral Astrangia poculata. Male colonies underwent ex situ spawning and sperm density was quantified. We then examined the effects of variable symbiont density and energetic budget on physiological traits, including immune activity and reproductive investment. Furthermore, we tested for potential trade-offs between immune activity and reproductive investment. Results We found limited associations between energetic budget and immune metrics; melanin production was significantly positively associated with carbohydrate concentration. However, we failed to document any associations between immunity and reproductive output which would be indicative of trade-offs, possibly due to experimental limitations. Our results provide a preliminary framework for future studies investigating immune trade-offs in cnidarians.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalie Villafranca
- Department of Biology, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, United States
| | - Isabella Changsut
- Department of Biology, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, United States
| | | | - Haley Womack
- Department of Biology, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, United States
| | - Lauren E. Fuess
- Department of Biology, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, United States
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Studivan MS, Eckert RJ, Shilling E, Soderberg N, Enochs IC, Voss JD. Stony coral tissue loss disease intervention with amoxicillin leads to a reversal of disease-modulated gene expression pathways. Mol Ecol 2023; 32:5394-5413. [PMID: 37646698 DOI: 10.1111/mec.17110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2023] [Revised: 07/22/2023] [Accepted: 08/10/2023] [Indexed: 09/01/2023]
Abstract
Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) remains an unprecedented disease outbreak due to its high mortality rate and rapid spread throughout Florida's Coral Reef and wider Caribbean. A collaborative effort is underway to evaluate strategies that mitigate the spread of SCTLD across coral colonies and reefs, including restoration of disease-resistant genotypes, genetic rescue, and disease intervention with therapeutics. We conducted an in-situ experiment in Southeast Florida to assess molecular responses among SCTLD-affected Montastraea cavernosa pre- and post-application of the most widely used intervention method, CoreRx Base 2B with amoxicillin. Through Tag-Seq gene expression profiling of apparently healthy, diseased, and treated corals, we identified modulation of metabolomic and immune gene pathways following antibiotic treatment. In a complementary ex-situ disease challenge experiment, we exposed nursery-cultured M. cavernosa and Orbicella faveolata fragments to SCTLD-affected donor corals to compare transcriptomic profiles among clonal individuals from unexposed controls, those exposed and displaying disease signs, and corals exposed and not displaying disease signs. Suppression of metabolic functional groups and activation of stress gene pathways as a result of SCTLD exposure were apparent in both species. Amoxicillin treatment led to a 'reversal' of the majority of gene pathways implicated in disease response, suggesting potential recovery of corals following antibiotic application. In addition to increasing our understanding of molecular responses to SCTLD, we provide resource managers with transcriptomic evidence that disease intervention with antibiotics appears to be successful and may help to modulate coral immune responses to SCTLD. These results contribute to feasibility assessments of intervention efforts following disease outbreaks and improved predictions of coral reef health across the wider Caribbean.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael S Studivan
- Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University, Fort Pierce, Florida, USA
- University of Miami, Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, Miami, Florida, USA
- Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division, NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Miami, Florida, USA
| | - Ryan J Eckert
- Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University, Fort Pierce, Florida, USA
| | - Erin Shilling
- Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University, Fort Pierce, Florida, USA
| | - Nash Soderberg
- University of Miami, Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, Miami, Florida, USA
- Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division, NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Miami, Florida, USA
| | - Ian C Enochs
- Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division, NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Miami, Florida, USA
| | - Joshua D Voss
- Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University, Fort Pierce, Florida, USA
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MacKnight NJ, Dimos BA, Beavers KM, Muller EM, Brandt ME, Mydlarz LD. Disease resistance in coral is mediated by distinct adaptive and plastic gene expression profiles. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabo6153. [PMID: 36179017 PMCID: PMC9524840 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo6153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
Infectious diseases are an increasing threat to coral reefs, resulting in altered community structure and hindering the functional contributions of disease-susceptible species. We exposed seven reef-building coral species from the Caribbean to white plague disease and determined processes involved in (i) lesion progression, (ii) within-species gene expression plasticity, and (iii) expression-level adaptation among species that lead to differences in disease risk. Gene expression networks enriched in immune genes and cytoskeletal arrangement processes were correlated to lesion progression rates. Whether or not a coral developed a lesion was mediated by plasticity in genes involved in extracellular matrix maintenance, autophagy, and apoptosis, while resistant coral species had constitutively higher expression of intracellular protein trafficking. This study offers insight into the process involved in lesion progression and within- and between-species dynamics that lead to differences in disease risk that is evident on current Caribbean reefs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas J. MacKnight
- University of Texas at Arlington, 337 Life Science Building, Arlington, TX 76019, USA
| | - Bradford A. Dimos
- University of Texas at Arlington, 337 Life Science Building, Arlington, TX 76019, USA
| | - Kelsey M. Beavers
- University of Texas at Arlington, 337 Life Science Building, Arlington, TX 76019, USA
| | - Erinn M. Muller
- Mote Marine Laboratory, 1600 Ken Thompson Pkwy, Sarasota, FL 34236, USA
| | - Marilyn E. Brandt
- University of the Virgin Islands, 2 John Brewers Bay, St. Thomas, VI 00802, USA
| | - Laura D. Mydlarz
- University of Texas at Arlington, 337 Life Science Building, Arlington, TX 76019, USA
- Corresponding author.
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Cowen LJ, Putnam HM. Bioinformatics of Corals: Investigating Heterogeneous Omics Data from Coral Holobionts for Insight into Reef Health and Resilience. Annu Rev Biomed Data Sci 2022; 5:205-231. [PMID: 35537462 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-biodatasci-122120-030732] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Coral reefs are home to over two million species and provide habitat for roughly 25% of all marine animals, but they are being severely threatened by pollution and climate change. A large amount of genomic, transcriptomic, and other omics data is becoming increasingly available from different species of reef-building corals, the unicellular dinoflagellates, and the coral microbiome (bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungi, etc.). Such new data present an opportunity for bioinformatics researchers and computational biologists to contribute to a timely, compelling, and urgent investigation of critical factors that influence reef health and resilience. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Biomedical Data Science, Volume 5 is August 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lenore J Cowen
- Department of Computer Science, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA;
| | - Hollie M Putnam
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, USA;
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Schlecker L, Page C, Matz M, Wright RM. Mechanisms and potential immune tradeoffs of accelerated coral growth induced by microfragmentation. PeerJ 2022; 10:e13158. [PMID: 35368334 PMCID: PMC8973463 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.13158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2021] [Accepted: 03/02/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Microfragmentation is the act of cutting corals into small pieces (~1 cm2) to accelerate the growth rates of corals relative to growth rates observed when maintaining larger-sized fragments. This rapid tissue and skeletal expansion technique offers great potential for supporting reef restoration, yet the biological processes and tradeoffs involved in microfragmentation-mediated accelerated growth are not well understood. Here we compared growth rates across a range of successively smaller fragment sizes in multiple genets of reef-building corals, Orbicella faveolata and Montastraea cavernosa. Our results confirm prior findings that smaller initial sizes confer accelerated growth after four months of recovery in a raceway. O. faveolata transcript levels associated with growth rate include genes encoding carbonic anhydrase and glutamic acid-rich proteins, which have been previously implicated in coral biomineralization, as well as a number of unannotated transcripts that warrant further characterization. Innate immunity enzyme activity assays and gene expression results suggest a potential tradeoff between growth rate after microfragmentation and immune investment. Microfragmentation-based restoration practices have had great success on Caribbean reefs, despite widespread mortality among wild corals due to infectious diseases. Future studies should continue to examine potential immune tradeoffs throughout the microfragmentation recovery period that may affect growout survival and disease transmission after outplanting.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Mikhail Matz
- University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States
| | - Rachel M. Wright
- Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, United States,University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States
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Deutsch JM, Mandelare-Ruiz P, Yang Y, Foster G, Routhu A, Houk J, De La Flor YT, Ushijima B, Meyer JL, Paul VJ, Garg N. Metabolomics Approaches to Dereplicate Natural Products from Coral-Derived Bioactive Bacteria. JOURNAL OF NATURAL PRODUCTS 2022; 85:462-478. [PMID: 35112871 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.1c01110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Stony corals (Scleractinia) are invertebrates that form symbiotic relationships with eukaryotic algal endosymbionts and the prokaryotic microbiome. The microbiome has the potential to produce bioactive natural products providing defense and resilience to the coral host against pathogenic microorganisms, but this potential has not been extensively explored. Bacterial pathogens can pose a significant threat to corals, with some species implicated in primary and opportunistic infections of various corals. In response, probiotics have been proposed as a potential strategy to protect corals in the face of increased incidence of disease outbreaks. In this study, we screened bacterial isolates from healthy and diseased corals for antibacterial activity. The bioactive extracts were analyzed using untargeted metabolomics. Herein, an UpSet plot and hierarchical clustering analyses were performed to identify isolates with the largest number of unique metabolites. These isolates also displayed different antibacterial activities. Through application of in silico and experimental approaches coupled with genome analysis, we dereplicated natural products from these coral-derived bacteria from Florida's coral reef environments. The metabolomics approach highlighted in this study serves as a useful resource to select probiotic candidates and enables insights into natural product-mediated chemical ecology in holobiont symbiosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica M Deutsch
- School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Engineered Biosystems Building, Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
| | - Paige Mandelare-Ruiz
- Smithsonian Marine Station, Smithsonian Institution, Fort Pierce, Florida 34949, United States
| | - Yingzhe Yang
- School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Engineered Biosystems Building, Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
| | - Gabriel Foster
- School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Engineered Biosystems Building, Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
| | - Apurva Routhu
- School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Engineered Biosystems Building, Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
| | - Jay Houk
- Smithsonian Marine Station, Smithsonian Institution, Fort Pierce, Florida 34949, United States
| | - Yesmarie T De La Flor
- Smithsonian Marine Station, Smithsonian Institution, Fort Pierce, Florida 34949, United States
| | - Blake Ushijima
- Smithsonian Marine Station, Smithsonian Institution, Fort Pierce, Florida 34949, United States
- Department of Biology and Marine Biology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina 28403, United States
| | - Julie L Meyer
- Department of Soil and Water Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32603, United States
| | - Valerie J Paul
- Smithsonian Marine Station, Smithsonian Institution, Fort Pierce, Florida 34949, United States
| | - Neha Garg
- School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Engineered Biosystems Building, Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
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