Meeting Abstract
31.2 Friday, Jan. 4 Why does immunity vary? Linking phylogenetics and life history traits to immunity in reef-building corals PINZON, JH*; BEACH-LETENDRE, JM; CAWTHORNE, A; WEIL, E; MYDLARZ, LD; Univ of Texas, Arlington; Univ of Texas, Arlington; Univ of Texas, Arlington; Univ of Puerto Rico – Mayaguez; Univ of Texas, Arlington pinzon@uta.edu
Changes associated with global climate change are affecting ecosystems through the planet, one example in the oceans are coral reefs. Increased sea surface temperatures are favoring the emergence of coral disease and environmental stressors in these ecosystem engineers. Disease outbreaks and frequent fluctuations in temperature have resulted in reduce coral cover and community shifts to either less sensitive coral species and/or algae. Basal immune levels, as well as inducible immune responses, have proven variable and species-specific suggesting that this variability might be associated with both interspecific genomic differences and evolutionary histories. Recently the phylogeny of corals have been under review thanks to the advent of molecular technique and the development of both molecular and population genetics markers. The most current analysis recommended a reorganization of the scleractinian phylogeny at several taxa, which resulted in a relatively accepted new classification of most families and genera. Based on this new taxonomic organization, our endeavor here is to analyze constitutive immune levels and explore its relation with the current classification, across distinct scleractinian groups (i.e. well defined families and genera). Initial results suggest that constitutive immunity in reef-building corals has a significant relation with their evolutionary history. Although, within each group other biological factors, such as reproduction (hermaphrodites vs. gonochoric) and growth form (massive vs. branching), might provide an advantage to certain species to fight and overcome current challenges from pathogenic infections and/or environmental stressors.
