title: Effects of elevated ammonium on the transcriptome of the stony coral Pocillopora damicornis.
abstract: The survival of corals worldwide has been seriously threatened by eutrophication events concomitant with the increase in ocean pollution. In the present study, whole transcriptomes of the stony coral Pocillopora damicornis exposed to elevated ammonium were sequenced. A total of 121,366,983 pair-end reads were obtained, and 209,337 genes were assembled, including 42,399 coral-derived and 54,874 zooxanthella-derived genes. Further, a comparison of the control versus stress group revealed 6572 differentially expressed genes. For 1015 significantly upregulated genes, 24 GO terms were overrepresented, among which 3 terms related to apoptosis and cell death induction included one caspase, five bcl-2-like proteins, and two tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member genes. For 5557 significantly downregulated genes, the top 10 overrepresented terms were related to metabolism and signal transduction. These results indicate that apoptosis and cell death could be induced under elevated ammonium, suggesting that metabolic regulation and signal transduction might be involved in the reconstruction of the coral-zooxanthellae symbiotic balance in the stony coral P. damicornis.
authors: Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China.
authors: Chao
authors: C
authors: Yuan
authors: Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: zhouzhi@hainu.edu.cn.
authors: Zhi
authors: Z
authors: Zhou
authors: Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China.
authors: Yidan
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
authors: Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China.
authors: Guangmei
authors: G
authors: Chen
authors: Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China.
authors: Xiaopeng
authors: X
authors: Yu
authors: Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China.
authors: Xingzhen
authors: X
authors: Ni
authors: Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China.
authors: Jia
authors: J
authors: Tang
authors: Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: huangbohb1@163.com.
authors: Bo
authors: B
authors: Huang
mesh_terms: D064751:Ammonium Compounds / Q000633:toxicity*; D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D005068:Eutrophication; D059467:Transcriptome / Q000502:physiology*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D064751:Ammonium Compounds; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Adaption; Coral; Environmental stress; Eutrophication; Transcriptome