Abstract
Extreme weather events frequency and scale are altered due to climate change. Symbiosis between corals and their endosymbiotic-dinoflagellates (Symbiodinium) is susceptible to these events and can lead to what is known as bleaching. However, there is evidence for coral adaptive plasticity in the role of epigenetic that have acclimated to high-temperature environments. We have implemented ATAC-seq and RNA-seq to study the cnidarian-dinoflagellate model Exaptasia pallida (Aiptasia) and expose the role of chromatin-dynamics in response to thermal-stress. We have identified 1309 genomic sites that change their accessibility in response to thermal changes. Moreover, apo-symbiotic Aiptasia accessible sites were enriched with NFAT, ATF4, GATA3, SOX14, and PAX3 motifs and expressed genes related to immunological pathways. Symbiotic Aiptasia accessible sites were enriched with NKx3-1, HNF4A, IRF4 motifs and expressed genes related to oxidative-stress pathways. Our work opens a new path towards understanding thermal-stress gene regulation in association with gene activity and chromatin-dynamics.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 282 |
| Journal | Communications Biology |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Dec 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The research leading to this paper has received funding from the Moore Foundation, “Unwinding the Circadian Clock in a Sea Anemone” (Grant #4598) to A.T & O.L. and funding from the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF), Grant #580/19 to O.L. We would like to thank Ms. Adi Zweifler and Dr. Noa Simon Blecher for their help with Aiptasia pallida cultures and assistance. We also would like to thank The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat (IUI) for the support in this research. This study represents partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Ph.D. thesis for E. Weizman at Faculty of Life Sciences Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).
