Transcriptomes and expression profiling of deep-sea corals from the Red Sea provide insight into the biology of azooxanthellate corals.

Yum, Lauren K., Baumgarten, Sebastian, Röthig, Till, Roder, Cornelia, Roik, Anna , Michell, Craig and Voolstra, Christian R. (2017) Transcriptomes and expression profiling of deep-sea corals from the Red Sea provide insight into the biology of azooxanthellate corals. Open Access Scientific Reports, 7 (1). Art.No. 6442. DOI 10.1038/s41598-017-05572-x.

[thumbnail of s41598-017-05572-x.pdf]
Preview
Text
s41598-017-05572-x.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0.

Download (1MB) | Preview

Supplementary data:

Abstract

Despite the importance of deep-sea corals, our current understanding of their ecology and evolution is limited due to difficulties in sampling and studying deep-sea environments. Moreover, a recent re-evaluation of habitat limitations has been suggested after characterization of deep-sea corals in the Red Sea, where they live at temperatures of above 20 °C at low oxygen concentrations. To gain further insight into the biology of deep-sea corals, we produced reference transcriptomes and studied gene expression of three deep-sea coral species from the Red Sea, i.e. Dendrophyllia sp., Eguchipsammia fistula, and Rhizotrochus typus. Our analyses suggest that deep-sea coral employ mitochondrial hypometabolism and anaerobic glycolysis to manage low oxygen conditions present in the Red Sea. Notably, we found expression of genes related to surface cilia motion that presumably enhance small particle transport rates in the oligotrophic deep-sea environment. This is the first study to characterize transcriptomes and in situ gene expression for deep-sea corals. Our work offers several mechanisms by which deep-sea corals might cope with the distinct environmental conditions present in the Red Sea As such, our data provide direction for future research and further insight to organismal response of deep-sea coral to environmental change and ocean warming.

Document Type: Article
Refereed: Yes
Open Access Journal?: Yes
Publisher: Nature Research
Date Deposited: 10 Jan 2018 15:15
Last Modified: 06 Feb 2020 09:12
URI: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/41405

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item