Temperature affects coral disease resistance and pathogen growth

By J. Ward, K. Kim, C. Harvell. 2007

164 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Temperature anomalies on coral reefs now routinely exceed coral stress thresholds, making temperature a critical variable to consider in coral host-pathogen systems. While tempera- ture is widely hypothesized to drive coral disease outbreaks by decreasing coral resistance and increasing pathogen growth rates, tests of the temperature hypothesis are rare. Here we report evidence from the sea fan coral Gorgonia ventalina -Aspergillus host-pathogen system that temperature stress increases one component of sea fan resistance. Experimentally infecting sea fan fragments while increasing temperatures to reflect summertime highs in the Florida Keys, USA, caused a 176% increase in activity of host-derived antifungal compounds. Thus, temperature stress and infection induce higher levels of resistance. However, pathogen growth rate also increases over the same temperature range, providing an opportunity for pathogen establishment before host resis- tance is maximal. This dual effect of temperature emphasizes the need to test intact host-pathogen systems. Given predictions for future warming events, aspergillosis is predicted to continue causing sea fan mortality in the Caribbean Sea.

Subfields: Ecology, Immunology, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1a691ea714d4e69e5c164c58f64b619b055e13d7

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology

1. Michael Lesser
2. Ruth D. Gates
3. O. Hoegh‐Guldberg
4. J. Bythell
5. S. Paull
6. E. Weil
7. T. McClanahan
8. Bryan E. LaFonte

In Immunology

1. O. Hoegh‐Guldberg
2. E. Weil
3. T. McClanahan
4. Michael Lesser
5. Joseph M. Maina
6. J. Bythell
7. K. Ritchie

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

1. O. Hoegh‐Guldberg
2. E. Weil
3. Pieter T. J. Johnson
4. T. McClanahan
5. Michael Lesser
6. Joseph M. Maina
7. J. Bythell

Citations in the corpus

• Temperature‐driven shifts in a host‐parasite interaction drive nonlinear changes in disease risk (2012, background): “For example, warmer temperatures enhanced both the growth rate of the fungal pathogen, Aspergillus sydowii, as well as the anti-fungal activity of its coral host, although the pathology associated with infection (measured as change in zooxanthellae abundance), was still greatest at high temperatures”
• Are infectious diseases really killing corals? Alternative interpretations of the experimental and ecological data (2007, background): “Cellular defenses include wandering amoebocytes that phagocytize microbial invaders (Sutherland et al., 2004; Mullen et al., 2004), and chemical defenses in the form of antimicrobials (Sutherland et al., 2004; Mullen et al., 2004; Ward et al., 2007).”
• Strong relationship between coral bleaching and growth anomalies in massive Porites (2009, background): “This is expected because bleaching compromises the health of corals and presumably make them more susceptible to microbial invasion (Ritchie, 2006), and because many microbes respond positively to warm water temperatures (Kushmaro et al., 1998; Boyett et al., 2007; Bruno et al., 2007; Ward et al., 2”
• Fungi in healthy and diseased sea fans (Gorgonia ventalina): is Aspergillus sydowii always the pathogen? (2008, background): “First, the reduction of microbial diversity in diseased colonies may be directly caused by an increase in dominance of the pathogen (Ward et al. 2007).”