Project description:RNASeq data on corals transplanted reciprocally into two different thermal microhabitats on Ofu Island Six individual corals transplanted into two habitats
Project description:Despite their early evolutionary divergence, reef-building corals exhibit complex circadian responses to diurnal, lunar and annual changes in the conditions around them. Understanding circadian regulation in reef-building corals is, however, complicated by the presence of photosynthetic endosymbionts that have a profound physiochemical influence on the intracellular environment. How corals tune their animal-based clock machinery to respond to external cues while at the same time responding to internal physiological changes imposed by the symbiont is not clear. We explore this issue using microarray analysis to dissect genes governed directly by the circadian machinery from those responding indirectly as a consequence of changing internal oxygen tensions.
Project description:Black corals, ecologically important cnidarians found from shallow to deep ocean depths, form a strong yet flexible skeleton of sclerotized chitin and other biomolecules including proteins. The structure and mechanical properties of the chitin component of the skeleton have been well-characterized. However, the protein component has remained a mystery. Here we used liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to sequence proteins extracted from two species of common Red Sea black corals following either one or two cleaning steps. We detected hundreds of proteins between the two corals, nearly 70 of which are each others’ reciprocal best BLAST hit. Unlike stony corals, only a few of the detected proteins were moderately acidic (biased toward aspartic and/or glutamic acid residues) suggesting less of a role for these types of proteins in black coral skeleton formation as compared to stony corals. No distinct chitin binding domains were found in the proteins, but proteins annotated as having a role in protein and chitin modifications were detected. Our results support the integral role of proteins in black coral skeleton formation, structure, and function.
