Ruiz-Diaz CP et al. (2016), The role of coral colony health state in the re...

ECB-ART-44463

PeerJ 2016 Jan 01;4:e1531. doi: 10.7717/peerj.1531.

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The role of coral colony health state in the recovery of lesions.

Ruiz-Diaz CP , Toledo-Hernandez C , Mercado-Molina AE , Pérez ME , Sabat AM .

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Coral disease literature has focused, for the most part, on the etiology of the more than 35 coral afflictions currently described. Much less understood are the factors that underpin the capacity of corals to regenerate lesions, including the role of colony health. This lack of knowledge with respect to the factors that influence tissue regeneration significantly limits our understanding of the impact of diseases at the colony, population, and community level. In this study, we experimentally compared tissue regeneration capacity of diseased versus healthy fragments of Gorgonia ventalina colonies at 5 m and 12 m of depth. We found that the initial health state of colonies (i.e., diseased or healthy) had a significant effect on tissue regeneration (healing). All healthy fragments exhibited full recovery regardless of depth treatment, while diseased fragments did not. Our results suggest that being diseased or healthy has a significant effect on the capacity of a sea fan colony to repair tissue, but that environmental factors associated with changes in depth, such as temperature and light, do not. We conclude that disease doesn''t just compromise vital functions such as growth and reproduction in corals but also compromises their capacity to regenerate tissue and heal lesions.

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Genes referenced: impact LOC100887844

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References [+] :

Burns, Histopathology of growth anomaly affecting the coral, Montipora capitata: implications on biological functions and population viability. 2011, Pubmed

	Figure 1. Nursery line of the Gorgonia ventalina fragments with treatment enumerated.1, 5, 9, 13, are healthy fragments (HF). Numbers 2, 6, 10 and 14 are scrapped healthy fragments (HFS). Numbers 3, 7 and 15 are diseased fragments (DF). Numbers 4, 8, 12 and 16 are scrapped diseased fragments (DFS). Light green represents healthy tissue, black oval represents exposed skeleton from experimental scraping, and violet oval represents lesion.
	Figure 2. Example of wound-healing process.Close-up pictures of scraped healthy individuals showing the healing process over the course of the experiment.
	Figure 3. Boxplots showing the slopes (rate at which tissue regenerated through time) between health state treatments (healthy and diseased) and fragments.The boxplot median is represented by the bold line, the extremes of the box are the 1st and 3rd quartile and the whiskers are the maximum and minimum. DF, diseased fragments; DFS, diseased fragments scrapped; HFS, healthy fragments.