The role of the microbiome in coral bleaching - Friends or Foes?

全球浅水珊瑚礁生态系统正在衰退，热压和水质恶化被认为是珊瑚白化和随后大规模死亡的主要原因(1，2)。主要的栖息地建立物种--珊瑚，被描述为由珊瑚宿主动物、其内共生的甲藻和‘珊瑚微生物群’组成的完整生物--由生活在珊瑚上和珊瑚内的高度多样化和丰富的微生物群落组成。虽然密集的研究工作集中在动物宿主和甲藻共生体对环境压力的反应上，但最近的证据表明，珊瑚微生物群随着环境梯度而变化，这一过程可能会影响珊瑚对压力的适应能力(3)。虽然已知海洋微生物是全球生物地球化学循环的关键驱动因素，但它们在珊瑚礁中的确切功能仍不清楚。目前还不清楚具体的环境参数如何塑造珊瑚微生物群的结构，以及哪些特定的机制和微生物驱动着全息珊瑚的健康功能。该项目旨在研究环境多重压力，特别是热和营养压力，如何影响不同珊瑚物种中微生物群落的组成及其与宿主的相互作用，从而影响珊瑚的复原能力及其从漂白事件中恢复的能力。

Shallow-water coral reef ecosystems are on decline globally, with heat stress anddeteriorating water quality identified as major causes of coral bleaching and subsequentmass mortality (1,2). The main habitat-founding species, scleractinian corals, are describedas a holobiont formed by the coral host animal, its endosymbiotic dinoflagellates and the'coral microbiome' - constituted by highly diverse and abundant communities of microbesliving on and within the coral. While intense research efforts have focused on how the animalhosts and dinoflagellate symbionts respond to environmental stress, recent evidencesuggests that the coral microbiome changes along environmental gradients and that thisprocess may influence coral resilience to stress (3). Although marine microbes are knownto be key drivers of global biogeochemical cycles; their exact functional roles in the coralholobiont remain unknown. It is unclear how specific environmental parameters shape thestructure of coral microbiome, and which specific mechanisms and microbes drive thehealthy functioning of the holobiont. This project aims to study how environmental multistressors,especially heat and nutrient stress, influence the composition of the microbiomeand their interactions with their hosts in different coral species; thus affecting the resilienceof corals and their capacity to recover from bleaching events.