Miller Margaret W, Colburn Philip J, Pontes Emma, Williams Dana E, Bright Allan J, Serrano Xaymara M, Peters Esther C
Southeast Fisheries Science Center, NOAA-National Marine Fisheries Service, Miami, FL, USA.
SECORE International, Miami, FL, USA.
PeerJ. 2019 Apr 8;7:e6751. doi: 10.7717/peerj.6751. eCollection 2019.
Disease mortality has been a primary driver of population declines and the threatened status of the foundational Caribbean corals, and . There remain few tools to effectively manage coral disease. Substantial investment is flowing into culture and population enhancement efforts, while disease takes a variable but sometimes high toll in restored populations. If genetic resistance to disease can be identified in these corals, it may be leveraged to improve resistance in restored populations and possibly lead to effective diagnostic tests and disease treatments. Using a standardized field protocol based on replicated direct-graft challenge assays, we quantified this important trait in cultured stocks from three field nurseries in the Florida Keys. Field tests of 12 genotypes of and 31 genotypes of revealed significant genotypic variation in disease susceptibility of both species measured both as risk of transmission (percent of exposed fragments that displayed tissue loss) and as the rate of tissue loss (cm d) in fragments with elicited lesions. These assay results provide a measure of relative disease resistance that can be incorporated, along with consideration of other important traits such as growth and reproductive success, into restoration strategies to yield more resilient populations.
疾病死亡率一直是加勒比地区基础珊瑚种群数量下降及其濒危状态的主要驱动因素，而且，目前仍几乎没有有效管理珊瑚疾病的工具。大量投资正涌入珊瑚养殖和种群增强工作中，然而疾病在恢复的种群中造成的损失各不相同，但有时很高。如果能在这些珊瑚中鉴定出对疾病的遗传抗性，就可以利用它来提高恢复种群的抗性，并有可能带来有效的诊断测试和疾病治疗方法。我们基于重复的直接移植挑战试验，采用标准化的现场方案，对来自佛罗里达群岛三个野外苗圃的养殖种群中的这一重要性状进行了量化。对12种鹿角珊瑚基因型和31种多孔鹿角珊瑚基因型的现场测试表明，这两个物种在疾病易感性方面存在显著的基因型差异，疾病易感性通过传播风险（显示组织损失的暴露片段百分比）和有引发损伤的片段中的组织损失率（厘米/天）来衡量。这些试验结果提供了一种相对抗病性的衡量方法，可将其与对其他重要性状（如生长和繁殖成功率）的考虑一起纳入恢复策略中，以培育出更具恢复力的种群。
