OCE-PRF: Drivers of phenotypic diversity and adaptation in asexually propagating coral populations

OCE-PRF：无性繁殖珊瑚种群表型多样性和适应的驱动因素

• 批准号: 2126612
• 负责人: Karina Scavo
• 金额: $ 31.78万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2126612&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: OCE; PRF; Drivers; phenotypic; diversity

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).In this era of rapid environmental change and degradation, the survival of marine organisms will depend largely upon their ability to tolerate increasing environmental stress. However, the processes that drive resilience (e.g., the relative contribution of genetic versus environmental factors) remain largely a mystery. Corals are a major focus of current studies on organismal resilience because they are undergoing a worldwide decline, and they are so important for both the health of the oceans and the welfare of coastal communities. Corals often occupy and build habitats through asexual reproduction (production of clones), and it is widely assumed that such asexual populations may lack sufficient genetic diversity to respond to diverse environmental stressors. However, few previous studies have quantified the effects of asexual reproduction on the ability of corals to respond to environmental change. This research explores the different mechanisms that contribute to differences in coral stress response among two predominately clonal populations of the Caribbean thin finger coral (Porites divaricata) dwelling in distinct habitat types (mangroves vs. reef). This research will illuminate the drivers of organismal resilience, potentially impacting ongoing coral conservation and restoration efforts. It will also broaden the participation of underrepresented groups by encouraging active participation by local community members, students and scientists at the University of Belize, as well as providing unique training opportunities for next-generation scientists at the interface of field marine ecology and genomics. Importantly, these results will be communicated to a wide audience through diverse venues, including technical reports and management recommendations provided for government agencies and non-profit Belizean conservation organizations, popular articles and curricular materials for the community at large, and peer-reviewed manuscripts and presentations targeted to the scientific community.Among conservation biologists and ecologists, there is an urgent effort underway to understand the causes of diversity in traits impacting organismal survival and reproduction. If we are to understand how natural populations will respond to environmental change, it is critical to understand how genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors impact resilience. Such studies have advanced significantly in many plant species, but they are only just beginning to be applied to animals like corals. As in many plants, the model species used here— Caribbean thin finger coral (Porites divaricata)–reproduces primarily asexually, allowing us to compare the performance of clones in different environments and isolate the effects of genotype, epigenetics (namely DNA methylation), environment, and somatic mutations on variation in stress-related coral traits. Specially, combining fully-crossed reciprocally transplanted coral ramets across mangrove and reef sites with genomic and methylation sequencing data, this research will evaluate 1) the role of intra-genet variation accumulated during asexual reproduction in facilitating adaptation in the mangrove population, relative to roles of between-genet variation and phenotypic plasticity, 2) assess the role of new DNA methylation states, and 3) measure the rate of accumulation of new DNA methylation marks and base-changes during asexual reproduction. Results from this research effort will advance our understanding of the role of mechanisms like DNA methylation and somatic mutations in driving phenotypic variation in critical stress-response traits and how these mutations accumulate over time, provide insight into how such mechanisms are generated and inherited across asexual generations, build upon the sparse understanding of the role of novel habitat types, i.e. mangroves, in coral ecology and evolution; and generate novel molecular resources including the first reference genome assembly for the non-model coral, P. divaricata.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.

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。在这个环境迅速变化和退化的时代，海洋生物的生存将在很大程度上取决于它们承受日益增长的环境压力的能力。然而，推动复原力的过程(例如，遗传因素与环境因素的相对贡献)在很大程度上仍然是一个谜。珊瑚是目前关于生物复原力研究的主要焦点，因为它们正在经历全球范围的下降，而且它们对海洋的健康和沿海社区的福祉都是如此重要。珊瑚经常通过无性繁殖(克隆)占据和建立栖息地，人们普遍认为这种无性种群可能缺乏足够的遗传多样性来应对不同的环境压力。然而，此前很少有研究量化无性繁殖对珊瑚应对环境变化能力的影响。这项研究探索了加勒比细指珊瑚(Porites Divaricata)两个主要克隆种群在不同栖息地类型(红树林和珊瑚礁)下造成珊瑚应激反应差异的不同机制。这项研究将阐明生物体恢复能力的驱动因素，潜在地影响正在进行的珊瑚保护和恢复工作。它还将鼓励当地社区成员、学生和伯利兹大学的科学家积极参与，并在实地海洋生态和基因组学领域为下一代科学家提供独特的培训机会，从而扩大代表性不足群体的参与。重要的是，这些成果将通过不同的场所传达给广泛的受众，包括为政府机构和非营利性伯利兹保护组织提供的技术报告和管理建议，为广大社区提供的受欢迎的文章和课程材料，以及针对科学界的同行评议手稿和演示文稿。在保护生物学家和生态学家中，正在加紧努力了解影响生物生存和繁殖的特征多样性的原因。如果我们要了解自然种群将如何应对环境变化，关键是要了解遗传、表观遗传和环境因素是如何影响韧性的。这类研究在许多植物物种中取得了显著进展，但它们才刚刚开始应用于珊瑚等动物。与许多植物一样，这里使用的模式物种-加勒比细指珊瑚(Porites Divaricata)-主要进行无性繁殖，使我们能够比较克隆在不同环境中的表现，并分离出基因、表观遗传(即DNA甲基化)、环境和体细胞突变对与压力相关的珊瑚性状变异的影响。特别是，结合红树林和珊瑚礁的完全交叉相互移植的珊瑚分株与基因组和甲基化测序数据，本研究将评估1)无性繁殖过程中积累的基因内变异在促进红树林种群适应中的作用，相对于基因间变异和表型可塑性的作用，2)评估新的DNA甲基化状态的作用，以及3)在无性繁殖过程中新DNA甲基化标记的积累和碱基变化的速率。这项研究的结果将促进我们对DNA甲基化和体细胞突变等机制在关键应激反应特征表型变异中的作用以及这些突变如何随时间积累的理解，为此类机制是如何产生并在无性世代之间遗传提供洞察力，建立在对新栖息地类型(即红树林)在珊瑚生态和进化中的作用的稀疏理解的基础上，并产生新的分子资源，包括非模式珊瑚P.divaricata.的第一个参考基因组组装。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。