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Expression of Putative Immune Response Genes during Early Ontogeny in the Coral Acropora millepora

BACKGROUND: Corals, like many other marine invertebrates, lack a mature allorecognition system in early life history stages. Indeed, in early ontogeny, when corals acquire and establish associations with various surface microbiota and dinoflagellate endosymbionts, they do not efficiently distinguish...

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Autores principales: Puill-Stephan, Eneour, Seneca, François O., Miller, David J., van Oppen, Madeleine J. H., Willis, Bette L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3391189/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22792163
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039099
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author Puill-Stephan, Eneour
Seneca, François O.
Miller, David J.
van Oppen, Madeleine J. H.
Willis, Bette L.
author_facet Puill-Stephan, Eneour
Seneca, François O.
Miller, David J.
van Oppen, Madeleine J. H.
Willis, Bette L.
author_sort Puill-Stephan, Eneour
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Corals, like many other marine invertebrates, lack a mature allorecognition system in early life history stages. Indeed, in early ontogeny, when corals acquire and establish associations with various surface microbiota and dinoflagellate endosymbionts, they do not efficiently distinguish between closely and distantly related individuals from the same population. However, very little is known about the molecular components that underpin allorecognition and immunity responses or how they change through early ontogeny in corals. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Patterns in the expression of four putative immune response genes (apextrin, complement C3, and two CELIII type lectin genes) were examined in juvenile colonies of Acropora millepora throughout a six-month post-settlement period using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). Expression of a CELIII type lectin gene peaked in the fourth month for most of the coral juveniles sampled and was significantly higher at this time than at any other sampling time during the six months following settlement. The timing of this increase in expression levels of putative immune response genes may be linked to allorecognition maturation which occurs around this time in A.millepora. Alternatively, the increase may represent a response to immune challenges, such as would be involved in the recognition of symbionts (such as Symbiodinium spp. or bacteria) during winnowing processes as symbioses are fine-tuned. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our data, although preliminary, are consistent with the hypothesis that lectins may play an important role in the maturation of allorecognition responses in corals. The co-expression of lectins with apextrin during development of coral juveniles also raises the possibility that these proteins, which are components of innate immunity in other invertebrates, may influence the innate immune systems of corals through a common pathway or system. However, further studies investigating the expression of these genes in alloimmune-challenged corals are needed to further clarify emerging evidence of a complex innate immunity system in corals.
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spelling pubmed-33911892012-07-12 Expression of Putative Immune Response Genes during Early Ontogeny in the Coral Acropora millepora Puill-Stephan, Eneour Seneca, François O. Miller, David J. van Oppen, Madeleine J. H. Willis, Bette L. PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Corals, like many other marine invertebrates, lack a mature allorecognition system in early life history stages. Indeed, in early ontogeny, when corals acquire and establish associations with various surface microbiota and dinoflagellate endosymbionts, they do not efficiently distinguish between closely and distantly related individuals from the same population. However, very little is known about the molecular components that underpin allorecognition and immunity responses or how they change through early ontogeny in corals. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Patterns in the expression of four putative immune response genes (apextrin, complement C3, and two CELIII type lectin genes) were examined in juvenile colonies of Acropora millepora throughout a six-month post-settlement period using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). Expression of a CELIII type lectin gene peaked in the fourth month for most of the coral juveniles sampled and was significantly higher at this time than at any other sampling time during the six months following settlement. The timing of this increase in expression levels of putative immune response genes may be linked to allorecognition maturation which occurs around this time in A.millepora. Alternatively, the increase may represent a response to immune challenges, such as would be involved in the recognition of symbionts (such as Symbiodinium spp. or bacteria) during winnowing processes as symbioses are fine-tuned. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our data, although preliminary, are consistent with the hypothesis that lectins may play an important role in the maturation of allorecognition responses in corals. The co-expression of lectins with apextrin during development of coral juveniles also raises the possibility that these proteins, which are components of innate immunity in other invertebrates, may influence the innate immune systems of corals through a common pathway or system. However, further studies investigating the expression of these genes in alloimmune-challenged corals are needed to further clarify emerging evidence of a complex innate immunity system in corals. Public Library of Science 2012-07-06 /pmc/articles/PMC3391189/ /pubmed/22792163 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039099 Text en Puill-Stephan et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Puill-Stephan, Eneour
Seneca, François O.
Miller, David J.
van Oppen, Madeleine J. H.
Willis, Bette L.
Expression of Putative Immune Response Genes during Early Ontogeny in the Coral Acropora millepora
title Expression of Putative Immune Response Genes during Early Ontogeny in the Coral Acropora millepora
title_full Expression of Putative Immune Response Genes during Early Ontogeny in the Coral Acropora millepora
title_fullStr Expression of Putative Immune Response Genes during Early Ontogeny in the Coral Acropora millepora
title_full_unstemmed Expression of Putative Immune Response Genes during Early Ontogeny in the Coral Acropora millepora
title_short Expression of Putative Immune Response Genes during Early Ontogeny in the Coral Acropora millepora
title_sort expression of putative immune response genes during early ontogeny in the coral acropora millepora
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3391189/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22792163
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039099
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