Our collaborators include researchers from Nova Southeastern University, University of Miami, University of Florida, Georgia Tech University, and the Smithsonian.
We are excited to congratulate Allie Klein on successfully proposing her Master’s thesis research titled, “Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease Susceptibility and Resistance: Genomic and Microbiome Factors in Orbicella faveolata” Since its emergence in 2014, over 96,000 acres of the Florida Reef Tract have been impacted by stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), severely impacting more than 20 coral species across multiple reef ecosystems. Orbicella faveolata is a critical reef-building species, but populations across the Tropical Western Atlantic have undergone rapid population declines and are further threatened by SCTLD outbreaks. O. faveolata has demonstrated unique intraspecies variation in response to SCTLD; while some O. faveolata colonies are highly susceptible to the disease and can exhibit multiple active lesions, other nearby O. faveolata colonies on the same reef appear resistant. The goal of this project is to better understand the molecular and genomic underpinnings that allow some O. faveolata colonies to be more resistant to SCTLD than others. Colonies of O. faveolata have been monitored over the past seven years and characterized based on observations of SCTLD progression, or lack thereof, as either: 1) apparently resistant, 2) moderately susceptible, or 3) highly susceptible. Coral tissue from each infection level will be sampled across two study sites to quantify and characterize potential drivers of this variable resistance and resilience. To determine if there are genetic differences driving relative susceptibility and/or resistance among the coral colonies, high-resolution restriction site-associated DNA sequencing will be used to generate suites of single nucleotide polymorphisms and quantify genomic variation. We aim to identify coral genotypes that should be prioritized as restoration candidates and to develop microbial biomarkers and screening approaches that can identify corals with subacute signs of infection. Coral microbial communities will also be characterized and tracked over time through disease progression. Bacteria community shifts will be identified through high-throughput amplicon sequencing of hypervariable regions of bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA genes. These data will be important for identifying potential differences in microbial taxa between SCTLD-resistant and SCTLD-susceptible corals. This project is a subset of a much larger collaboration and results from this research will be combined with histological, gene expression, and algal symbiont data to better understand intraspecific variation in SCTLD resistance, providing critical information for intervention and restoration efforts. Our collaborators include researchers from Nova Southeastern University, University of Miami, University of Florida, Georgia Tech University, and the Smithsonian. O. faveolata colonies of the three susceptibility groups (from left to right): apparently resistant, moderately susceptible, highly susceptible. (Photos by Brian Walker, Nova Southeastern University)
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