Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA.
Microbial Biology Graduate Program, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA.
Sci Rep. 2022 Aug 24;12(1):14398. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-18653-3.
Coral bleaching, precipitated by the expulsion of the algal symbionts that provide colonies with fixed carbon is a global threat to reef survival. To protect corals from anthropogenic stress, portable tools are needed to detect and diagnose stress syndromes and assess population health prior to extensive bleaching. Here, medical grade Urinalysis strips, used to detect an array of disease markers in humans, were tested on the lab stressed Hawaiian coral species, Montipora capitata (stress resistant) and Pocillopora acuta (stress sensitive), as well as samples from nature that also included Porites compressa. Of the 10 diagnostic reagent tests on these strips, two appear most applicable to corals: ketone and leukocytes. The test strip results from M. capitata were explored using existing transcriptomic data from the same samples and provided evidence of the stress syndromes detected by the strips. We designed a 3D printed smartphone holder and image processing software for field analysis of test strips (TestStripDX) and devised a simple strategy to generate color scores for corals (reflecting extent of bleaching) using a smartphone camera (CoralDX). Our approaches provide field deployable methods, that can be improved in the future (e.g., coral-specific stress test strips) to assess reef health using inexpensive tools and freely available software.
珊瑚白化是由于为珊瑚虫提供固定碳的共生藻类被排出而引发的，这是对珊瑚礁生存的全球性威胁。为了保护珊瑚免受人为压力的影响，需要便携式工具来检测和诊断应激综合征，并在广泛白化之前评估种群健康状况。在这里，用于检测人类一系列疾病标志物的医用尿液分析条被用于实验室压力下的夏威夷珊瑚物种，即 Montipora capitata（抗压力）和 Pocillopora acuta（敏感压力），以及来自自然界的样本，其中还包括 Porites compressa。在这些条带上的 10 种诊断试剂测试中，有两种似乎最适用于珊瑚：酮和白细胞。使用来自同一样本的现有转录组数据探索了 M. capitata 的测试带结果，并提供了由条带检测到的应激综合征的证据。我们设计了一个 3D 打印智能手机支架和图像分析软件，用于测试带的现场分析（TestStripDX），并设计了一种简单的策略，使用智能手机摄像头（CoralDX）为珊瑚生成颜色分数（反映白化程度）。我们的方法提供了可在现场部署的方法，可以在将来（例如，珊瑚专用应激测试带）进行改进，以使用廉价工具和免费可用软件评估珊瑚礁的健康状况。
