Meeting Abstract
Outbreaks of disease in marine organisms have become more prevalent over the past decades. This has been especially true in both hard and soft corals. Understanding the etiology of these diseases is important when directing conservation efforts and preservation of coral reefs. One of the most recent epizootics occurring affects the soft coral species, Eunicea calyculata and is causing large scale mortality among populations in the Florida Keys, Miami, and West Palm Beach reefs of Florida. Current efforts are aimed at identifying a potential pathogen and the main immunological responses occurring with this disease. In this presentation, we focus on the host immune response. Using biochemical immunoassays and transcriptional analyses we demonstrate significant changes in several immune parameters. Most notably, there was significant increase in melanin and antioxidant activity in diseased colonies versus healthy. To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to examine the immune responses in the Euniceagenus as well as being the first transcriptional study of Eunicea. Recent survey data indicate that this disease is more prevalent in shallower waters and may be driven by the presence of environmental stressors such as elevated temperatures and/or excess UV irradiation. Therefore, further study of this disease system can contribute greatly to our understanding of how environmental stressors affect the immunocompetence of corals.
