October 04, 2019
For years we have been hearing that coral reefs are under threat from climate change. Warming seas are contributing to coral bleaching which is the result of coral expelling the algae that live within them, which in turn results in the death of the coral itself. Death of the coral results in death of the reef as the resident fish and animals leave.
Researchers from the University of Queensland and James Cook University have taken a new approach to better understand exactly what is going on. They have sequenced the genome of not only the coral, but the algae that lives in the coral, and all the associated microbes. Creating a genomic library of a coral and the symbiotic relationships it has with microbes will provide information about the way the organisms interact in a level of detail never obtained before.
Knowing more detail about how exactly the microbes, algae and coral interact will shed new light on how healthy symbiosis occurs in reefs. This research may help conservationists have a better understanding of the reef at a genomic level, which will improve the way we manage and maintain healthy coral reefs.
Source: Science Daily
Read more: http://ow.ly/pE0Y50wtYtz
