Meeting Abstract
54% of global coral reefs have died within the last thirty years and disease outbreaks have shown to play a significant role in altering the structure of the reef community. Corals have different susceptibilities to disease and understanding how disease dynamics differ between species and the role of immunity in these patterns will give insight and allow us to make trait-based predictions of future reef populations. We measured the disease susceptibility and immunity gene expression of seven common Caribbean reef-building coral: Colpophyllia natans, Montastrea cavernosa, Orbicella faveolata, Orbicella annularis, Porites asteroides, Porites porites, and Siderastrea siderea. White plague disease was transmitted from infected coral to healthy coral fragments in a controlled experiment. Disease prevalence and severity differed among all species. Orbicella faveolata and O. annularis had the highest prevalence of disease, followed by Colpophyllia natans, and Siderastrea siderea. Both Porites species and Montastrea showed little to no disease phenotype. Using RNAseq the coral’s immune response and network were examined. Preliminary data shows exposure to white plague disease produced a significantly different gene expression profile in Orbicella faveolata. Weighted Gene Correlation Network Analysis was applied to infer the relationship between gene expression profiles and white plague exposure, infection, and tissue loss and relevant modules of gene networks were identified as significantly correlated. Employing gene ontology enrichment and WGCNA will provide insight into the plasticity of the transcriptome in all seven species in relation to the diseased state.
