Acclimation mechanisms of reef-building coral Acropora gemmifera juveniles to long-term CO2-driven ocean acidification
Abstract Ocean acidification (OA) is a major threat to the sexual recruitment of reef-building corals. Acclimation mechanisms are critical but poorly understood in reef-building corals to OA during early life stages. Here, Acropora gemmifera, a common Indo-Pacific coral cultured in in situ seawater...
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Nature Portfolio
2025-08-01
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| author | Minglan Guo Tao Yuan Lei Jiang Guowei Zhou Hui Huang |
| author_facet | Minglan Guo Tao Yuan Lei Jiang Guowei Zhou Hui Huang |
| author_sort | Minglan Guo |
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| description | Abstract Ocean acidification (OA) is a major threat to the sexual recruitment of reef-building corals. Acclimation mechanisms are critical but poorly understood in reef-building corals to OA during early life stages. Here, Acropora gemmifera, a common Indo-Pacific coral cultured in in situ seawater from Luhuitou reef at three levels of pCO2 (pH 8.14, 7.83, 7.54), showed significantly delayed larval metamorphosis and juvenile growth, but adapted to long-term high pCO2. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) emerged as a time- and dose-dependent mode of short-term response (3 days post settlement, d p.s.) and long-term acclimation (40 d p.s.), with more DEGs responding to high pCO2 (pH 7.54) than to medium pCO2 (pH 7.83). High pCO2, a presumed threatening seawater baseline for A. gemmifera juveniles, activated DNA repair, macroautophagy, microautophagy and mitophagy mechanisms to maintain cellular homeostasis, recycle cytosolic proteins and damaged organelles, and scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) and H+, but at the cost of delayed development through cell cycle arrest associated with epigenetic and genetic regulation at 3 d p.s.. However, A.gemmifera juveniles acclimated to high pCO2 by up-regulating cell cycle, transcription, translation, cell proliferation, cell-extracellular matrix, cell adhesion, cell communication, signal transduction, transport, binding, Symbiodiniaceae symbiosis, development and calcification from 3 d p.s. to 40 d p.s., when energy reallocation and metabolic suppression occurred for high demand but short-term energy limitation in coral cells undergoing flexible symbiosis. All results indicate that acclimation mechanisms of complicated gene expression improve larval and juvenile resilience to OA for coral population recovery and reef restoration. |
| format | Article |
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| spelling | doaj-art-993d0091835b40e398b53e7d62ff97982025-08-24T11:28:15ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-08-0115111310.1038/s41598-025-15145-yAcclimation mechanisms of reef-building coral Acropora gemmifera juveniles to long-term CO2-driven ocean acidificationMinglan Guo0Tao Yuan1Lei Jiang2Guowei Zhou3Hui Huang4State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-Resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-Resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-Resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-Resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-Resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of SciencesAbstract Ocean acidification (OA) is a major threat to the sexual recruitment of reef-building corals. Acclimation mechanisms are critical but poorly understood in reef-building corals to OA during early life stages. Here, Acropora gemmifera, a common Indo-Pacific coral cultured in in situ seawater from Luhuitou reef at three levels of pCO2 (pH 8.14, 7.83, 7.54), showed significantly delayed larval metamorphosis and juvenile growth, but adapted to long-term high pCO2. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) emerged as a time- and dose-dependent mode of short-term response (3 days post settlement, d p.s.) and long-term acclimation (40 d p.s.), with more DEGs responding to high pCO2 (pH 7.54) than to medium pCO2 (pH 7.83). High pCO2, a presumed threatening seawater baseline for A. gemmifera juveniles, activated DNA repair, macroautophagy, microautophagy and mitophagy mechanisms to maintain cellular homeostasis, recycle cytosolic proteins and damaged organelles, and scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) and H+, but at the cost of delayed development through cell cycle arrest associated with epigenetic and genetic regulation at 3 d p.s.. However, A.gemmifera juveniles acclimated to high pCO2 by up-regulating cell cycle, transcription, translation, cell proliferation, cell-extracellular matrix, cell adhesion, cell communication, signal transduction, transport, binding, Symbiodiniaceae symbiosis, development and calcification from 3 d p.s. to 40 d p.s., when energy reallocation and metabolic suppression occurred for high demand but short-term energy limitation in coral cells undergoing flexible symbiosis. All results indicate that acclimation mechanisms of complicated gene expression improve larval and juvenile resilience to OA for coral population recovery and reef restoration.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-15145-yScleractinian coralJuvenileAcropora gemmiferaAcclimationElevated pCO2 |
| spellingShingle | Minglan Guo Tao Yuan Lei Jiang Guowei Zhou Hui Huang Acclimation mechanisms of reef-building coral Acropora gemmifera juveniles to long-term CO2-driven ocean acidification Scientific Reports Scleractinian coral Juvenile Acropora gemmifera Acclimation Elevated pCO2 |
| title | Acclimation mechanisms of reef-building coral Acropora gemmifera juveniles to long-term CO2-driven ocean acidification |
| title_full | Acclimation mechanisms of reef-building coral Acropora gemmifera juveniles to long-term CO2-driven ocean acidification |
| title_fullStr | Acclimation mechanisms of reef-building coral Acropora gemmifera juveniles to long-term CO2-driven ocean acidification |
| title_full_unstemmed | Acclimation mechanisms of reef-building coral Acropora gemmifera juveniles to long-term CO2-driven ocean acidification |
| title_short | Acclimation mechanisms of reef-building coral Acropora gemmifera juveniles to long-term CO2-driven ocean acidification |
| title_sort | acclimation mechanisms of reef building coral acropora gemmifera juveniles to long term co2 driven ocean acidification |
| topic | Scleractinian coral Juvenile Acropora gemmifera Acclimation Elevated pCO2 |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-15145-y |
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