title: Genetic markers for antioxidant capacity in a reef-building coral.
abstract: The current lack of understanding of the genetic basis underlying environmental stress tolerance in reef-building corals impairs the development of new management approaches to confronting the global demise of coral reefs. On the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), an approximately 51% decline in coral cover occurred over the period 1985-2012. We conducted a gene-by-environment association analysis across 12° latitude on the GBR, as well as both in situ and laboratory genotype-by-phenotype association analyses. These analyses allowed us to identify alleles at two genetic loci that account for differences in environmental stress tolerance and antioxidant capacity in the common coral Acropora millepora. The effect size for antioxidant capacity was considerable and biologically relevant (32.5 and 14.6% for the two loci). Antioxidant capacity is a critical component of stress tolerance because a multitude of environmental stressors cause increased cellular levels of reactive oxygen species. Our findings provide the first step toward the development of novel coral reef management approaches, such as spatial mapping of stress tolerance for use in marine protected area design, identification of stress-tolerant colonies for assisted migration, and marker-assisted selective breeding to create more tolerant genotypes for restoration of denuded reefs.
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), PMB No. 3, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia.; College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; AIMS@JCU, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: Young K
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5363-7553
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), PMB No. 3, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia.; Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lundgren
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), PMB No. 3, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia.; AIMS@JCU, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8392-3921
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lutz
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), PMB No. 3, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia.; College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; AIMS@JCU, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; Plant Functional Biology and Climate Change Cluster, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2007, Australia.
authors.forename: Jean-Baptiste
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Raina
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), PMB No. 3, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia.; College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; AIMS@JCU, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
authors.forename: Emily J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Howells
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), PMB No. 3, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia.; College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; AIMS@JCU, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: Allison S
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3491-9993
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Paley
authors.affiliation: College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; AIMS@JCU, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: Bette L
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9341-6448
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Willis
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), PMB No. 3, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia.; AIMS@JCU, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.; School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
authors.forename: Madeleine J H
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: van Oppen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000378:metabolism*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D057231:Climate Change; D057894:Coral Reefs; D004777:Environment; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D005819:Genetic Markers; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D013696:Temperature; D014867:Water / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D005819:Genetic Markers; D014867:Water
keywords: Assisted Evolution; Coral; QTL; antioxidant capacity; climate change; coral reef restoration