CAREER:Omic Insights into Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease

The CAREER award will examine the changing chemical and microbial make up of coral reefs experiencing outbreaks of stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD). Coral reefs support diverse ocean life and sustain economic growth in coastal areas. Coral reefs are imperiled by disease outbreaks, climate change, and anthropogenic activities.

Specifically, SCTLD is spreading unabated in Florida and the Caribbean and has infected over 20 coral species. Despite this spread, the understanding of chemical changes that accompany the onset of disease, the changes in bacterial inhabitants, and the disruption of the coral-algal symbiosis, remains poorly known. The principal investigator will elucidate the chemical changes that occur during SCTLD progression in corals using multi-omics and data analytic strategies.

The bacteria and algae that may be responsible for these chemical changes will be identified. Knowledge gained from this research will provide understanding of the chemical and organismal signatures that define health or disease status of corals. To enhance the reach of this research, teaching modules will be created for high school, undergraduate and graduate students and K-12 teachers.

Introduction of high school students to the effects of climate change on coral reefs and role of STEM in understanding disease mechanisms may enhance student participation in STEM fields and serve as a strong scientific foundation for these students.

Very little is known about pathogenic mechanisms in marine environments. Unabated spread of SCTLD provides a unique opportunity to understand pathogenesis in the marine environment. The specific goal of this project is to decipher the role of algal and microbial symbionts in the health of coral holobionts at the chemical level via the implementation of multi-omic strategies including metabolomics of field corals, cultured microbial and algal symbionts, and microbiome sequencing.

This research will provide fundamental insights into 1) natural product metabolites that co-occur with pathogenic microbial consortia, 2) natural products that are produced by the microbiome and the endosymbionts prior to onset of disease and during recovery post-treatment, and 3) how changes in the microbiome during disease are linked to changes in the chemical makeup of corals across different species. The paired metabolomics and 16S amplicon sequencing data generated in this proposal is the first step towards building future efforts in integrating metagenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics data to understand molecular markers underlying SCTLD and to delineate biochemical pathways underlying coral host-microbe, host-algal symbiont, and host-pathogen relationships.

By identifying chemical signatures of the disease state, this research may result in new strategies to mitigate SCTLD.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.