Meeting Abstract

12.2  Saturday, Jan. 4 10:30  Fundamental molecular components of coral immunity revealed through comparative analysis of gene coexpression networks WRIGHT, R.M.*; MATZ, M.V; University of Texas, Austin rachelwright8@gmail.com

Understanding innate immunity in reef-building corals would benefit conservation efforts to restore rapidly declining reefs worldwide. Here, we took a gene coexpression networks approach to compare the disease response in adults of Acropora hyacinthus with the response to viral challenge in the larvae of Acropora millepora with the goal of dissecting the most fundamental mechanisms of coral immunity conserved among species and operating in all life cycle stages. Fragments of diseased and healthy A. hyacinthus were collected in the field, while larvae of A. millepora were challenged with concentrated field-collected virus-like particles as well as heat stress in the lab. Tag-based RNA-seq data were processed by means of weighted gene coexpression networks analysis (WGCNA) to identify groups (modules) of co-regulated genes, assess the degree of coherence (“preservation”) of these modules across diverse experimental samples, and identify genes serving as regulatory network hubs. Two of the three significantly preserved modules correlated with heat stress, thus partitioning out the genes related to general stress response. The third preserved module correlated specifically with virus treatment/disease state. The most highly connected genes within these three modules represent hubs of gene regulatory networks and are thus the key elements of coral stress response and innate immunity. This knowledge is critical for understanding corals’ susceptibility to disease. Furthermore, exposing conserved characteristics of innate immunity in basal metazoans such as corals could lead to broader biomedical insights.