title: Molecular pathology of skeletal growth anomalies in the brain coral Platygyra carnosa: A meta-transcriptomic analysis.
abstract: Coral skeletal growth anomaly (GA) is a common coral disease. Although extensive ecological characterizations of coral GA have been performed, the molecular pathology of this disease remains largely unknown. We compared the meta-transcriptome of normal and GA-affected polyps of Platygyra carnosa using RNA-Seq. Approximately 50 million sequences were generated from four pairs of normal and GA-affected tissue samples. There were 109 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in P. carnosa and 31 DEGs in the coral symbiont Symbiodinium sp. These differentially expressed host genes were enriched in GO terms related to osteogenesis and oncogenesis. There were several differentially expressed immune genes, indicating the presence of both bacteria and viruses in GA-affected tissues. The differentially expressed Symbiodinium genes were enriched in reproduction, nitrogen metabolism and pigment formation, indicating that GA affects the physiology of the symbiont. Our results have provided new insights into the molecular pathology of coral GA.
authors.affiliation: Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Bioresource and Eco-environmental Science, Guangdong Engineering Research Center for Marine Algal Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China; Division of Life Sciences, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Huawei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mu
authors.affiliation: Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
authors.forename: Janice C Y
authors.initials: JCY
authors.lastname: Lun
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China. Electronic address: qiujw@hkbu.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Jian-Wen
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Qiu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D004141:Dinoflagellida / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D017125:Genes, Protozoan / Q000502:physiology*; D059467:Transcriptome
keywords: Coral; Coral disease; Coral health; Coral tumor; Gene expression; Transcriptome