Summaries of lab projects
Symbiosis - establishment & maintenance
The Aiptasia holobiont is comprised of the cnidarian animal, endosymbiotic dinoflagellates (family Symbiodinaceae), and associated microbiome. The Pringle lab has focused primarily on the cnidarian and algae partners. Questions we are interested in:
- What genes are involved in symbiosis? Open Access G3 article
- How do Aiptasia and corals discriminate and choose compatible Symbiodinaceae?
- Once algae are endosymbiotic, how does Aiptasia control the population of its symbionts?
- What nutrients and how are they translocated between partners? Open Access JEB article
- How do different strains/ species of Symbiodinaceae contribute to fitness of the holobiont?
- How do different strains of Aiptasia contribute to the fitness of the holobiont?
Dysbiosis - breakdown & bleaching
When the cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis is severely perturbed, it manifests as the phenomenon of coral bleaching. Bleached corals have lost endosymbiotic algae and we see their white-colored skeleton through their transparent tissue. At the global scale, high sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification are the dominant stressors to corals. At the local scale, water pollution and sedimentation from coastal development can severely impact coral health. Similarily, Aiptasia will bleach under various stressful conditions. Research projects have focused on:
- What are the transcriptomic and proteomic changes which occur in Aiptasia during heat stress-induced bleaching? Full free PNAS article
- What are the cellular mechanisms of symbiont loss during heat stressed-induced bleaching? Open Access PLoS ONE article
- How do sunscreen UV filters distrupt the cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis and cause toxicity to Aiptasia and corals?
Genetic Engineering Tools
Transformation of coral larvae
We have succesfully generated mosaic F0 larvae with mutations at target sites via microinjection delivery of CRISPR-Cas9 reagents into the single cell zygote. Open Access PNAS publication
Transformation of Aiptasia larvae
We have successfully generated larvae with overexpression contructs and knock-down larvae via electroporation of plasmids, mRNA, and shRNA into single cell zygotes.