Coral innate immunity and disease

Coral disease has been increasing on reefs due to anthropogenic climate change and other human activities. This is particularly evident in the Florida Reef Tract where the recent outbreak of “Stony Coral Tissue Loss” has devastated reefs. This research aims to understand how the immune system interacts with this and other coral diseases to understand the baseline coral health. We use different ‘omics, and cell biology techniques to investigate the immune health of corals before, during and after disease response.

Collaborations: Dr. Valerie Paul, Smithsonian; Dr. Erinn Muller, Mote Marine Lab;  Dr. Stephanie Rosales, NOAA/CIMAS; Dr. Debashish Bhattacharya, Rutgers University; Dr. Andrew Baker, University of Miami/RSMAS; and Dr. Michael Studivan, NOAA/CIMAS.

Funding: NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program and Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Associated publications:

Young B.**, Serrano X.M., Rosales S., Miller M.W., Williams D., Traylor-Knowles N.* Innate immune gene expression in Acropora palmata is consistent despite differences in yearly disease events, in revision, PloS One. LINK

Walters B.***, Connelly M.T.**, Young, B.** Traylor-Knowles N. * The Complicated Evolutionary Diversification of the Mpeg-1/Perforin-2 Family in Cnidarians. Accepted, Frontier of Immunology. LINK

Rosales, S. Miller, M., William, D., Young, B.**, Traylor-Knowles, N., Serrano, X. (2019) Microbiome differences in disease-resistant vs. susceptible Acropora corals subjected to disease challenge assays. Scientific Reports. 9(1): 1-11. LINK