Meeting Abstract
The mutualistic symbiosis between many Cnidarians and dinoflagellate algae is increasingly threatened by different environmental stressors that can induce breakdown of the symbiosis, or bleaching. We are using rt-qPCR to determine how increased water temperature affects gene expression of two extracellular matrix genes (matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and collagen), two stress-sensitive genes (HSP90 and ubiquitin) and two control genes (NADH-dehydrogenase 5 (NDH5) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 1(GPD1) in the tropical sea anemone, Aiptasia pallida. We temperature-shocked anemones for 0, 6, and 12 hours, isolated RNA, converted it to cDNA, and then used qPCR to measure gene expression. MMP and ubiquitin expression relative to NDH5 showed elevation at 6 and 12 hours, however when expressed relative to GPD1, MMP and ubiquitin were elevated at 6 hours, but not at 12 hours, and collagen expression was elevated at 12 hours. These results suggest that temperature is inducing changes in gene expression for MMP and collagen, but it is also affecting the control genes in a manner that was unexpected. Thus, temperature is inducing changes in expression of the control genes NDH5 and GPD1. We are investigating the relative expression of the two control genes and are also investigating whether a third control gene, actin, will resolve these discrepancies. Results from this study will help elucidate the underlying cellular mechanisms of temperature-induced Cnidarian bleaching and yield insight into which cellular pathways are affected by increased water temperature.
