High natural gene expression variation in the reef-building coral Acropora millepora: potential for acclimative and adaptive plasticity.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Ecosystems worldwide are suffering the consequences of anthropogenic impact. The diverse ecosystem of coral reefs, for example, are globally threatened by increases in sea surface temperatures due to global warming. Studies to date have focused on determining genetic diversity, the sequence variability of genes in a species, as a proxy to estimate and predict the potential adaptive response of coral populations to environmental changes linked to climate changes. However, the examination of natural gene expression variation has received less attention. This variation has been implicated as an important factor in evolutionary processes, upon which natural selection can act.

Results

We acclimatized coral nubbins from six colonies of the reef-building coral Acropora m

SUBMITTER: Granados-Cifuentes C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3630057 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature