| Summary: | Thousands of marine species, like sea turtles, fish, crabs, shrimp, jellyfish, sea birds, starfish, and more, depend on coral reefs for their survival. Since global warming and ocean acidification have been rising, we see its negative effects on corals and on 25% of marine life[1]. One of the most worrisome challenges is coral bleaching. Corals live in a symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae. Coral bleaching occurs when the zooxanthellae are expelled out of the corals, with as little as two degrees increase in water temperature[2,3]. Moreover, the rapid increase of microplastic pollution in the ocean environment has been found to affect the corals and their symbiotic relationship[4]. Our proposed hypothesis is that establishing a symbiotic relationship between genetically modified corals and genetically modified algae (zooxanthellae) can provide better heat tolerance towards the warming oceans. There is a lot of research underway in genetically modifying either corals or zooxanthellae[5-8]. We propose to combine these various research into a single project and try to predict the outcomes. If a promising solution is obtained, we can get rid of coral bleaching events altogether. Hence, a broader vision of this project is to entirely curb coral bleaching, if not entirely prevent global warming. The main objectives of this work are to identify various attempts in making the corals and their symbionts heat resistant, maybe by assisted evolution, and present the best possible combination as the solution to bleaching. We plan to design experiments for the same and build theoretical predictions based on the gene regulation of both organisms. As an additional module, we plan to look for possible ways in order to prevent the active ingestion of microplastics by these organisms. Peoples’ livelihoods, food security, and safety can be affected adversely due to coral bleaching. Without them, we must rely on man-made sea walls that are expensive, less effective, and environmentally damaging to ...
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