Ocean acidification
OA and heat push coral microbes toward pathogens
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
After 6 days at pH ~7.7 and 32°C, Galaxea and Acropora RNA-based symbionts shifted and virulence/stress genes rose, changes that often persisted 9 days after stressors ended.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
This library holds 6 empirical papers on ocean acidification with measured outcomes rather than reviews.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
After 6 days at pH ~7.7 and 32°C, Galaxea and Acropora RNA-based symbionts shifted and virulence/stress genes rose, changes that often persisted 9 days after stressors ended.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Lab pH treatments and coastal variability are not the same as open-ocean century-scale change.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Open questions
Tensions this paper is part of
From concept pages' “where studies disagree.” Disagreement means the same question; scope means different assays, populations, or outcomes.
Lab pH treatments and coastal variability are not the same as open-ocean century-scale change.
- Supports · Lower pH kills spirorbids but favors sponges
Study at a glance
- Design
- Animal / in-vitro — Factorial aquarium acidification and heat stress on Galaxea and Acropora with RNA-based symbiont profiling
- N
- N=51 · 51 16S libraries; replicate fragments n=10 per experimental tank condition
- Population
- South China Sea Galaxea fascicularis and Acropora valida coral fragments
- Outcome
- Active prokaryotic symbiont communities and stress/virulence gene expression under OA and warming
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
Inspect source passages
OA and heat push coral microbes toward pathogens
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
2,024,156 high-quality 16S reads came from 51 libraries.
A total of 2,024,156 high-quality 16S rRNA pyrosequencing reads were recovered from 51 libraries of the total RNA of two species of corals and the ambient seawater with three repeats, respectively.
Control tanks were ~26°C and pH ~8.1.
The tanks in control treatment were maintained at ambient temperature and pH condition (temperature: ~ 26℃, pH: ~ 8.1).
Key findings
2.02 million 16S reads from 51 libraries. Host identity dominated community structure. Stressors still changed active communities (ANOSIM R ≥ 0.86). A. valida diversity rose under combined stress. DEGs implicated virulence, heat-shock, and reduced photosynthesis/CO2 fixation functions.
Methodology
Two South China Sea corals were exposed to acidification (A), heat (H), and combined AH versus ambient (~26°C, pH ~8.1); 16S rRNA from total RNA and metatranscriptomes were compared during stress and recovery.
Limitations
Tank pH 7.7 / 32°C is an extreme end-century pulse, not a gradual reef trajectory; RNA from fragments does not equal colony mortality on reefs.
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