Thermal resilience of Red Sea corals

A study finds that thermal acclimation capacity may protect some corals as well as their algal and bacterial communities from damage due to rising ocean temperatures. Warming ocean temperatures have damaged coral reefs worldwide through coral bleaching and mortality, but the corals of the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba have remained unaffected. Romain Savary and colleagues exposed the Stylophora pistillata coral organism from the Gulf of Aqaba to temperatures ranging from 27 °C to 34.5 °C at timescales of hours to weeks. At temperatures up to 32 °C, both the coral host and its symbiotic algae experienced rapid and pervasive changes in gene expression but quickly returned to nearly baseline gene expression following a heat stress recovery period. At 34.5 °C, however, recovery to baseline gene expression was minimal, the coral experienced widespread mortality, and the composition of the coral community microbiome shifted toward opportunistic bacteria, suggesting that 34.5 °C is above the lethal limit for S. pistillata. According to the authors, although the corals of the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba are unlikely to experience temperatures up to 32 °C within this century, their resilient gene expression and acclimation potential enhance their chances of survival in a warming world.

Article #20-23298: “Fast and pervasive transcriptomic resilience and acclimation of extremely heat-tolerant coral holobionts from the northern Red Sea,” by Romain Savary et al.

MEDIA CONTACT: Romain Savary, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, SWITZERLAND; tel: 0041 79 398 81 01; email:

[email protected]

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