Meeting Abstract

37.5  Friday, Jan. 4  Functional Genomic Analysis Of Stress Response In Corals MEYER, E.**; MATZ, M.; University of Texas, Austin; University of Texas, Austin EliMeyer@mail.utexas.edu

The temperature sensitivity of reef building corals, considered in the context of climate change, can be viewed as a natural experiment on a global scale. This allows investigation of the capacity for corals to adapt to environmental stress and the mechanisms involved in this adaptation. In our experiments, transcriptome profiling of Porites lobata exposed to controlled environmental stressors (elevated temperature, copper, and injury) revealed differential expression of >100 different transcripts. The set of candidate stress response genes obtained from these exploratory analyses provides insights into adaptation to stress at the level of gene expression. Several challenges remain for understanding adaptation to environmental stress in corals, including a comprehensive description of genes and processes involved. The importance of larval processes for maintenance and recovery of coral populations underscores the necessity for characterizing larval stress responses in a similar fashion. Our findings identify physiological traits that are important for surviving environmental stress, and are therefore likely to be under selection during ongoing climate change.