Chan Wing Yan, Chung Jessica, Peplow Lesa M, Hoffmann Ary A, van Oppen Madeleine J H
Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, QLD, Australia.
School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
Mol Ecol. 2021 Jan;30(2):517-527. doi: 10.1111/mec.15727. Epub 2020 Nov 29.
Maternal effects have been well documented for offspring morphology and life history traits in plants and terrestrial animals, yet little is known about maternal effects in corals. Further, few studies have explored maternal effects in gene expression. In a previous study, F1 interspecific hybrid and purebred larvae of the coral species Acropora tenuis and Acropora loripes were settled and exposed to ambient or elevated temperature and pCO conditions for 7 months. At this stage, the hybrid coral recruits from both ocean conditions exhibited strong maternal effects in several fitness traits. We conducted RNA-sequencing on these corals and showed that gene expression of the hybrid Acropora also exhibited clear maternal effects. Only 40 genes were differentially expressed between hybrids and their maternal progenitor. In contrast, ~2000 differentially expressed genes were observed between hybrids and their paternal progenitors, and between the reciprocal F1 hybrids. These results indicate that maternal effects in coral gene expression can be long-lasting. Unlike findings from most short-term stress experiments in corals, no genes were differentially expressed in the hybrid nor purebred offspring after seven months of exposure to elevated temperature and pCO conditions.
母体效应在植物和陆地动物的后代形态及生活史特征方面已有充分记录，但对于珊瑚中的母体效应却知之甚少。此外，很少有研究探讨基因表达中的母体效应。在之前的一项研究中，珊瑚物种细枝鹿角珊瑚和洛氏鹿角珊瑚的F1种间杂交幼虫和纯种幼虫进行附着，并在环境温度或升高温度及pCO₂条件下暴露7个月。在此阶段，来自两种海洋条件的杂交珊瑚幼体在几个适合度性状上表现出强烈的母体效应。我们对这些珊瑚进行了RNA测序，结果表明杂交鹿角珊瑚的基因表达也呈现出明显的母体效应。杂种与其母本之间只有40个基因差异表达。相比之下，在杂种与其父本之间以及正反交F1杂种之间观察到约2000个差异表达基因。这些结果表明，珊瑚基因表达中的母体效应可能是持久存在的。与大多数珊瑚短期应激实验的结果不同，在暴露于升高温度和pCO₂条件7个月后，杂交后代和纯种后代中均没有基因差异表达。
