| Summary: | Little is known about the potential for acclimatization or adaptation of corals to ocean acidification and even less about the molecular mechanisms underpinning these processes. Here we examine global gene expression patterns in corals and their intracellular algal symbionts from two replicate population pairs in Papua New Guinea that have undergone long-term acclimatization to natural variation in pCO2. In the coral host, only 61 genes were differentially expressed in response to pCO2 environment, but the pattern of change was highly consistent between replicate populations, likely reflecting the core expression homeostasis response to ocean acidification. Functional annotations highlight lipid metabolism and a change in the stress response capacity of corals as key parts of this process. Specifically, constitutive downregulation of molecular chaperones was observed, which may impact response to combined climate-change related stressors. Elevated CO2 has been hypothesized to benefit photosynthetic organisms but expression changes of in hospite Symbiodinium in response to acidification were greater and less consistent among reef populations. This population-specific response suggests hosts may need to adapt not only to an acidified environment, but also to changes in their Symbiodinium populations that may not be consistent among environments, adding another challenging dimension to the physiological process of coping with climate change. Photographs of sampled coralsPhotographs were taken at the time of collection. Image file name indicates coral colony number corresponding to raw TagSeq reads. Labels within images contain date/time/GPS information.MilneBayCollections_Small.zipR script for DESeq analyses and tables of read countsAnnotated R script for replicating DESeq analyses as described in the linked publication. Input files are tables of TagSeq read counts for host and symbionts, post-quality trimming and mapping to the Acropora millepora and Symbiodinium clade C reference transcriptomes, ...
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