Genomic comparison of the temperate coral Astrangia poculata with tropical corals yields insights into winter quiescence, innate immunity, and sexual reproduction
Files
First author draft
Date
2023-09-22
Authors
Stankiewicz, Kathryn H.
Guiglielmoni, Nadège
Kitchen, Sheila A.
Flot, Jean-François
Barott, Katie L.
Davies, Sarah W.
Finnerty, John R.
Grace, Sean P.
Kaufman, Leslie S.
Putnam, Hollie M.
Version
First author draft
OA Version
Citation
K.H. Stankiewicz, N. Guiglielmoni, S.A. Kitchen, J.-F. Flot, K.L. Barott, S.W. Davies, J.R. Finnerty, S.P. Grace, L.S. Kaufman, H.M. Putnam, R.D. Rotjan, K.H. Sharp, I.B. Baums. "Genomic comparison of the temperate coral Astrangia poculata with tropical corals yields insights into winter quiescence, innate immunity, and sexual reproduction" bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.09.22.558704
Abstract
Facultatively symbiotic corals provide important experimental models to explore the establishment, maintenance, and breakdown of the mutualism between corals and members of the algal family Symbiodiniaceae. The temperate coral Astrangia poculata is one such model as it is not only facultatively symbiotic, but also occurs across a broad temperature and latitudinal gradient. Here, we report the de novo chromosome-scale assembly and annotation of the A. poculata genome. Though widespread segmental/tandem duplications of genomic regions were detected, we did not find strong evidence of a whole genome duplication (WGD) event. Comparison of the gene arrangement between A. poculata and the tropical coral Acropora millepora revealed 56.38% of the orthologous genes were conserved in syntenic blocks despite ~415 million years of divergence. Gene families related to sperm hyperactivation and innate immunity, including lectins, were found to contain more genes in A. millepora relative to A. poculata. Sperm hyperactivation in A. millepora is expected given the extreme requirements of gamete competition during mass spawning events in tropical corals, while lectins are important in the establishment of coral-algal symbiosis. By contrast, gene families involved in sleep promotion, feeding suppression, and circadian sleep/wake cycle processes were expanded in A. poculata. These expanded gene families may play a role in A. poculata’s ability to enter a dormancy-like state (“winter quiescence”) to survive freezing temperatures at the northern edges of the species’ range.
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This version posted September 23, 2023. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made vailable under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.