Disease resistance variance in the Great Star Coral

Coral reef ecosystems, critical reserves of marine biodiversity, are particularly vulnerable to climate change, which has exacerbated other coral threats such as disease. In the Caribbean region disease is the leading cause of coral mortality. Intraspecific heterogeneity with regard to disease resistance has been observed in coral populations, but the molecular mechanisms of disease resistance remain largely unknown in coral. This project analyzes phenotypic and predictive gene expression data from samples of Montastraea cavernosa, a reef-building scleractinian coral, in order to characterize the roots of disease resistance in the species. We found two genes with expression patterns significantly associated with resistance to a bacterial pathogen. One of these genes, BRICHOS, has been previously found upregulated in corals under heat stress. Resistant individuals upregulated mitotic activities relative to susceptible individuals, suggesting that higher rates of cell proliferation or greater populations of highly proliferative cells may contribute to pathogen resistance