Heat stress increases immune cell function in Hexacorallia

Shir Eliachar, Grace Ann Snyder, Shany Klara Barkan, Shani Talice, Aner Otolenghi, Adrian Jaimes-Becerra, Ton Sharoni, Eliya Sultan, Uzi Hadad, Oren Levy, Yehu Moran, Orly Gershoni-Yahalom, Nikki Traylor-Knowles, Benyamin Rosental

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Climate change induced heat stress has increased coral bleaching events worldwide. Differentially regulated immune genes are one of the primary responses to heat stress suggesting that immune activation is critical. However, the cellular immune mechanisms of coral bleaching is currently unknown, and it is still not known if the immune response documented during heat stress is a consequence of bleaching or is directly caused by the heat stress itself. To address this question, we have used two model system sea anemones (Order: Actiniaria): Exaiptasia diaphana and Nematostella vectensis. E. diaphana is an established sea anemone model for algal symbiont interaction, while N. vectensis is an established sea anemone model that lacks the algal symbiont. Here, we examined the effect of increased temperature on phagocytic activity, as an indication of immune function. Our data shows that immune cell activity increases during heat stress, while small molecule pinocytosis remains unaffected. We observed an increase in cellular production of reactive oxygen species with increasing temperatures. We also found that the cellular immune activity was not affected by the presence of the Symbiodiniaceae. Our results suggest that the immune activity observed in heat-stress induced bleaching in corals is a fundamental and basic response independent of the bleaching effect. These results establish a foundation for improving our understanding of hexacorallian immune cell biology, and its potential role in coral bleaching.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1016097
JournalFrontiers in Immunology
Volume13
DOIs
StatePublished - 22 Dec 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Eliachar, Snyder, Barkan, Talice, Otolenghi, Jaimes-Becerra, Sharoni, Sultan, Hadad, Levy, Moran, Gershoni-Yahalom, Traylor-Knowles and Rosental.

Funding

NT-K and BR were supported by NSF-BSF Integrative and Organismal Systems (IOS) Grant: BSF grant number 2019647, NSF grant number 1951826. BR would like to thank Alex and Ann Lauterbach for funding the Comparative and Evolutionary Immunology Laboratory. The work of BR was supported by Israel Science Foundation (ISF) numbers: 1416/19 and 2841/19. BR has received funding from European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 948476. BR has received funding from a HFSP grant (RGY0085/2019). Part of this work was supported by ERC consolidator grant 863809 under Horizon 2020 to YM.

FundersFunder number
Alex and Ann Lauterbach
Comparative and Evolutionary Immunology Laboratory
NSF-BSF
National Science Foundation1951826
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme948476
European Commission
Human Frontier Science ProgramRGY0085/2019, 863809
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation2019647
Israel Science Foundation1416/19, 2841/19
Horizon 2020

    Keywords

    • Hexacorallia
    • comparative immunology
    • heat stress
    • innate immunity
    • phagocytosis

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