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van de Water JA, Lamb JB, van Oppen MJ, et al. Comparative immune responses of corals to stressors associated with offshore reef-based tourist platforms. Conserv Physiol. 2015;3(1):cov032doi: 10.1093/conphys/cov032.
van de Water, J. A., Lamb, J. B., van Oppen, M. J., Willis, B. L., & Bourne, D. G. (2015). Comparative immune responses of corals to stressors associated with offshore reef-based tourist platforms. Conservation physiology, 3(1), cov032. https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/cov032
van de Water, Jeroen A J M, et al. "Comparative immune responses of corals to stressors associated with offshore reef-based tourist platforms." Conservation physiology vol. 3,1 (2015): cov032. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/cov032
van de Water JA, Lamb JB, van Oppen MJ, Willis BL, Bourne DG. Comparative immune responses of corals to stressors associated with offshore reef-based tourist platforms. Conserv Physiol. 2015 Jul 24;3(1):cov032. doi: 10.1093/conphys/cov032. eCollection 2015. PMID: 27293717; PMCID: PMC4778433.
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Conserv Physiol. 2015 Jul 24;3(1):cov032. doi: 10.1093/conphys/cov032. eCollection 2015.

Comparative immune responses of corals to stressors associated with offshore reef-based tourist platforms.

Conservation physiology

Jeroen A J M van de Water, Joleah B Lamb, Madeleine J H van Oppen, Bette L Willis, David G Bourne

Affiliations

  1. ARCCentre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University,Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia; College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University,Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia; AIMS@JCU, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia; Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB 3, Townsville MC,Townsville, QLD 4810, Australia.
  2. ARCCentre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University,Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia; College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University,Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia; AIMS@JCU, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia; Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB 3, Townsville MC,Townsville, QLD 4810, Australia; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA.
  3. ARCCentre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University,Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia; AIMS@JCU, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia; Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB 3, Townsville MC,Townsville, QLD 4810, Australia; School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia.
  4. ARCCentre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University,Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia; College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University,Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia; AIMS@JCU, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia.
  5. AIMS@JCU, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia; Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB 3, Townsville MC,Townsville, QLD 4810, Australia.

PMID: 27293717 PMCID: PMC4778433 DOI: 10.1093/conphys/cov032

Abstract

Unravelling the contributions of local anthropogenic and seasonal environmental factors in suppressing the coral immune system is important for prioritizing management actions at reefs exposed to high levels of human activities. Here, we monitor health of the model coral Acropora millepora adjacent to a high-use and an unused reef-based tourist platform, plus a nearby control site without a platform, over 7 months spanning a typical austral summer. Comparisons of temporal patterns in a range of biochemical and genetic immune parameters (Toll-like receptor signalling pathway, lectin-complement system, prophenoloxidase-activating system and green fluorescent protein-like proteins) among healthy, injured and diseased corals revealed that corals exhibit a diverse array of immune responses to environmental and anthropogenic stressors. In healthy corals at the control site, expression of genes involved in the Toll-like receptor signalling pathway (MAPK p38, MEKK1, cFos and ATF4/5) and complement system (C3 and Bf) was modulated by seasonal environmental factors in summer months. Corals at reef platform sites experienced additional stressors over the summer, as evidenced by increased expression of various immune genes, including MAPK p38 and MEKK1. Despite increased expression of immune genes, signs of white syndromes were detected in 31% of study corals near tourist platforms in the warmest summer month. Evidence that colonies developing disease showed reduced expression of genes involved in the complement pathway prior to disease onset suggests that their immune systems may have been compromised. Responses to disease and physical damage primarily involved the melanization cascade and GFP-like proteins, and appeared to be sufficient for recovery when summer heat stress subsided. Overall, seasonal and anthropogenic factors may have interacted synergistically to overwhelm the immune systems of corals near reef platforms, leading to increased disease prevalence in summer at these sites.

Keywords: GFP-like proteins; coral; disease; immunity; phenoloxidase; tourism

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