Meeting Abstract

P3.222  Sunday, Jan. 6  Discovering the genes contributing to thermal stress survival in the coral Acropora millepora CAPPER, RL*; MEYER, E; MATZ, MV; Univ. of Texas at Austin; Oregon State University; Univ. of Texas at Austin roxana.capper@gmail.com

The rate at which corals can adapt to changing environments is paramount to understanding how reef ecosystems will shift in the face of global climate change. In order to determine the potential response repertoire of corals to elevated heat stress, we performed an experiment to reveal the genetic basis of mortality under heat stress with the goal of locating regions of the genome that contribute to survival when exposed to high temperatures. First, 30 directed, non-selfing and genetically distinct families of the scleractinian coral Acropora millepora were cultured to uncover the heritability of heat stress survival. Then, each culture was split with half of the larvae subjected to prolonged heat stress (12 hr 32°C) and the other half placed into control temperature conditions. Survivors of all treatment and control samples were collected. We then used the novel technique of quantitative high resolution melting (qHRM) to scan the genomes of each family at 96 SNP loci to determine which regions of the genome correlate with post-heat stress survival. Using this method, we found multiple loci that are associated both within reciprocal crosses and between unrelated crosses. Ongoing analyses of these loci will potentially elucidate the genetic mechanisms that contribute to survival under thermal stress.