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Crovetto L, Venn AA, Sevilgen D, Tambutté S, Tambutté E. Spatial variability of and effect of light on the cœlenteron pH of a reef coral. Commun Biol 2024; 7:246. [PMID: 38424314 PMCID: PMC10904758 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-05938-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2023] [Accepted: 02/19/2024] [Indexed: 03/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Coral reefs, the largest bioconstruction on Earth, are formed by calcium carbonate skeletons of corals. Coral skeleton formation commonly referred to as calcification occurs in a specific compartment, the extracellular calcifying medium (ECM), located between the aboral ectoderm and the skeleton. Calcification models often assume a direct link between the surrounding seawater and the ECM. However, the ECM is separated from the seawater by several tissue layers and the cœlenteron, which contains the cœlenteric fluid found in both polyps and cœnosarc (tissue connecting the polyps). Symbiotic dinoflagellate-containing cells line the cœlenteron and their photosynthetic activity contributes to changes in the chemistry of the cœlenteric fluid, particularly with respect to pH. The aim of our study is to compare cœlenteron pH between the cœnosarc and polyps and to compare areas of high or low dinoflagellate density based on tissue coloration. To achieve this, we use liquid ion exchange (LIX) pH microsensors to profile pH in the cœlenteron of polyps and the cœnosarc in different regions of the coral colony in light and darkness. We interpret our results in terms of what light and dark exposure means for proton gradients between the ECM and the coelenteron, and how this could affect calcification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas Crovetto
- Marine Biology Department, Centre Scientifique de Monaco, 98000, Monaco
- Sorbonne Université - ED 515 Complexité du Vivant, 75005, Paris, France
| | - Alexander A Venn
- Marine Biology Department, Centre Scientifique de Monaco, 98000, Monaco
| | - Duygu Sevilgen
- Marine Biology Department, Centre Scientifique de Monaco, 98000, Monaco
| | - Sylvie Tambutté
- Marine Biology Department, Centre Scientifique de Monaco, 98000, Monaco.
| | - Eric Tambutté
- Marine Biology Department, Centre Scientifique de Monaco, 98000, Monaco
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Gomez-Campo K, Sanchez R, Martínez-Rugerio I, Yang X, Maher T, Osborne CC, Enriquez S, Baums IB, Mackenzie SA, Iglesias-Prieto R. Phenotypic plasticity for improved light harvesting, in tandem with methylome repatterning in reef-building corals. Mol Ecol 2024; 33:e17246. [PMID: 38153177 PMCID: PMC10922902 DOI: 10.1111/mec.17246] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2023] [Revised: 11/24/2023] [Accepted: 11/30/2023] [Indexed: 12/29/2023]
Abstract
Acclimatization through phenotypic plasticity represents a more rapid response to environmental change than adaptation and is vital to optimize organisms' performance in different conditions. Generally, animals are less phenotypically plastic than plants, but reef-building corals exhibit plant-like properties. They are light dependent with a sessile and modular construction that facilitates rapid morphological changes within their lifetime. We induced phenotypic changes by altering light exposure in a reciprocal transplant experiment and found that coral plasticity is a colony trait emerging from comprehensive morphological and physiological changes within the colony. Plasticity in skeletal features optimized coral light harvesting and utilization and paralleled significant methylome and transcriptome modifications. Network-associated responses resulted in the identification of hub genes and clusters associated to the change in phenotype: inter-partner recognition and phagocytosis, soft tissue growth and biomineralization. Furthermore, we identified hub genes putatively involved in animal photoreception-phototransduction. These findings fundamentally advance our understanding of how reef-building corals repattern the methylome and adjust a phenotype, revealing an important role of light sensing by the coral animal to optimize photosynthetic performance of the symbionts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelly Gomez-Campo
- Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | - Robersy Sanchez
- Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | | | - Xiaodong Yang
- Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | - Tom Maher
- Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | - C. Cornelia Osborne
- Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | - Susana Enriquez
- Unidad Académica de Sistemas Arrecifales Puerto Morelos, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 77580, México
| | - Iliana B. Baums
- Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | - Sally A. Mackenzie
- Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
- Department of Plant Science, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
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Willard HF, Deutekom ES, Allemand D, Tambutté S, Kaandorp JA. Testing hypotheses on the calcification in scleractinian corals using a spatio-temporal model that shows a high degree of robustness. J Theor Biol 2023; 561:111382. [PMID: 36610694 DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2022.111382] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2022] [Revised: 12/05/2022] [Accepted: 12/07/2022] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Calcification in photosynthetic scleractinian corals is a complicated process that involves many different biological, chemical, and physical sub-processes that happen within and around the coral tissue. Identifying and quantifying the role of separate processes in vivo or in vitro is difficult or not possible. A computational model can facilitate this research by simulating the sub-processes independently. This study presents a spatio-temporal model of the calcification physiology, which is based on processes that are considered essential for calcification: respiration, photosynthesis, Ca2+-ATPase, carbonic anhydrase. The model is used to test different hypotheses considering ion transport across the calicoblastic cells and Light Enhanced Calcification (LEC). It is also used to quantify the effect of ocean acidification (OA) on the Extracellular Calcifying Medium (ECM) and ATP-consumption of Ca2+-ATPase. It was able to reproduce the experimental data of three separate studies and finds that paracellular transport plays a minor role compared to transcellular transport. In the model, LEC results from increased Ca2+-ATPase activity in combination with increased metabolism. Implementing OA increases the concentration of CO2 throughout the entire tissue, thereby increasing the availability of CO3- in the ECM. As a result, the model finds that calcification becomes more energy-demanding and the calcification rate increases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helena F Willard
- Computational Science Lab, Informatics Institute, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Eva S Deutekom
- Computational Science Lab, Informatics Institute, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Denis Allemand
- Centre Scientifique de Monaco, Avenue Saint Martin, 98000, Monaco
| | - Sylvie Tambutté
- Centre Scientifique de Monaco, Avenue Saint Martin, 98000, Monaco
| | - Jaap A Kaandorp
- Computational Science Lab, Informatics Institute, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
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Drake JL, Mass T, Stolarski J, Von Euw S, van de Schootbrugge B, Falkowski PG. How corals made rocks through the ages. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2020; 26:31-53. [PMID: 31696576 PMCID: PMC6942544 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14912] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2019] [Revised: 10/28/2019] [Accepted: 10/30/2019] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Hard, or stony, corals make rocks that can, on geological time scales, lead to the formation of massive reefs in shallow tropical and subtropical seas. In both historical and contemporary oceans, reef-building corals retain information about the marine environment in their skeletons, which is an organic-inorganic composite material. The elemental and isotopic composition of their skeletons is frequently used to reconstruct the environmental history of Earth's oceans over time, including temperature, pH, and salinity. Interpretation of this information requires knowledge of how the organisms formed their skeletons. The basic mechanism of formation of calcium carbonate skeleton in stony corals has been studied for decades. While some researchers consider coral skeletons as mainly passive recorders of ocean conditions, it has become increasingly clear that biological processes play key roles in the biomineralization mechanism. Understanding the role of the animal in living stony coral biomineralization and how it evolved has profound implications for interpreting environmental signatures in fossil corals to understand past ocean conditions. Here we review historical hypotheses and discuss the present understanding of how corals evolved and how their skeletons changed over geological time. We specifically explain how biological processes, particularly those occurring at the subcellular level, critically control the formation of calcium carbonate structures. We examine the different models that address the current debate including the tissue-skeleton interface, skeletal organic matrix, and biomineralization pathways. Finally, we consider how understanding the biological control of coral biomineralization is critical to informing future models of coral vulnerability to inevitable global change, particularly increasing ocean acidification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeana L Drake
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Tali Mass
- Department of Marine Biology, The Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | | | - Stanislas Von Euw
- Trinity Centre for Bioengineering, Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | | | - Paul G Falkowski
- Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
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