Gene Editing Could Save Coral Reefs

A recent report has shown that using CRISPR-Cas9 scientists have been modifying genes in corals.  The research has been taking place in Australia using the Great Barrier Reef.  A research group led by Phillip Cleves used CRISPR to change three genes in the early life of coral just after fertilization.  Two of the genes were responsible for coloring for red and green fluorescent proteins and the last gene is involved with regulating how coral grows and settles in a reef.  The research is difficult to conduct because the coral only spawn once or twice a year for a very short period of time.  Getting the timing right was important because changing the genes in an early stage will make it easier for them to see how their changes affected the corals.  Scientists are hoping that this research could eventually lead them to make corals more resilient to bleaching caused by pollution and climate change.  Another hope is that they could eventually use this technology on existing coral and not just use it in the embryonic stage.

Amino Acid role in the Fight Against Coral Bleaching

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181102094821.htm (Original Article)
http://eol.org/pages/91312/overview

Global warming is becoming a larger threat year after year. The damages that have be dealt by the heat is starting to become irreversible. This is especially true to the wild life at sea because many aquatic animals are adapted to a certain temperature, but the ocean temperatures are slowly rising. Corals in this case have an extremely hard time because they have very specific temperature needs but are dying due to the heat. The great barrier reef for example is nearly gone because of global warming. However, this article states that recent scientists have discovered "robust" corals. Normal corals can only produce 11 out of the 20 amino acids while requiring the 9 essential remaining ones to be collected for them by symbiodinium. Corals also have a specificity on what symbiodinium it coexists with as well. However, a robust coral can make 11 amino acids but it can also make 1 essential amino acid without the help of a symbiodinium meaning that it can potentially survive bleaching. Not only that, the robust corals do not really mind what symbiodinum it coexists with. This could mean big things because if we can potentially do something with the amino acid a coral can naturally make, it is possible to give it a symbiodinium who can help it resist against bleaching while not giving any adverse effects to the health of the coral itself.

Using CRISPR to Save Coral Reefs

CRISPR is a gene-editing tool (CRISPR-Cas9) that allows researchers to tweak any gene in plants or animals and the coral reefs could be the next target for this practice. Researcher Phillip Cleves and team at Stanford University published a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, in which they used the CRISPR technique to edit three specific genes in corals growing in the Australia Great Barrier Reef.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is a major concern for coral life.

The genes that the researchers manipulated in the coral's early life cycle, just after the fertilization of egg via sperm. While the coral was a single cell, the genes were manipulated to ensure that all the subsequent cells of the coral would contain the manipulated genes. Two of the manipulated genes were responsible for reef coloring (using red and green fluorescent proteins) and the other regulates growth of coral.

The manipulation of genes to coral is difficult however, due to the reproduction behaviors of coral. Basically, coral only spawn once or twice per year, so the researchers had a very limited window. Results of the CRISPR experiment allow researchers to take more coral genes and determine what they do. Through this research, they may be able to cause coral to become more resilient to bleaching due to environmental conditions. The researchers claim that they will not use the research to genetically engineer the coral at this point, but are using it to develop a database of information. 

Personally, I believe in global warming and climate change and seeing the effects of it on our environment are disheartening. I also believe that coral reefs are not seen as important as they are. They are responsible and a key species in ecosystems. In addition, they help to protect coastlines from wave actions and provide habitats for marine organisms. Bleaching of the coral causes them to become weak and more susceptible to disease. This minor change can kill coral and cause a disruption in the ecosystem. I am totally for genetic engineering when it is ethically correct, and in this case, the use of engineering is to protect marine ecosystems and help to suppress the effect of global warming on the ocean. Over the next few years, I will be happy to see more research done on coral and their genes to try to protect the different species.

CRISPR Gene Editing Could Save the Coral Reefs

CRISPR gene editing has been used by scientists to make tweaks in practically any gene in plants and animals. A research study done at Stanford University was able to edit 3 genes in corals growing in The Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Phillip Cleves lead this experiment and he used CRISPR gene edition at the earliest stage of life in corals. Two of these genes used coded for the coloring in corals and the other gene coded for how new corals settle and grow in the reef. The results of this experiment has given scientists a stepping stone to discovering a way to edit the genes of corals to make them resistant to bleaching. Coral bleaching is caused from pollution and the warmer ocean temperatures. This has a major affect on the ocean and the world because bleaching causes the death of corals and all the organisms that depend on coral to live. The study conducted by Phillip Cleves has provided scientists with information to lead them in the direction to change the genes in corals to make them resistant to bleaching. This is a very important study that can hopefully change what pollution is doing to the earth. In my opinion, I think that more people should be aware about how climate change and pollution is affecting our planet. If scientists can figure out what genes are responsible for bleaching and if they are able to insert genes that code of bleaching resistant, a major change can be made in the ocean.

Article: http://time.com/5250927/crispr-gene-editing-coral-reefs/
Additional Article: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coral_bleach.html

How Gene Editing Could Save Coral Reefs

The intense quality altering device CRISPR-Cas9 is surprising the logical world. It gives analysts phenomenal power and accuracy in making changes to for all intents and purposes any quality in a plant or creature — and coral reefs could turn into its next recipient. 

In a paper distributed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analysts drove by Phillip Cleves at Stanford University utilized CRISPR to alter three qualities in corals developing in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Cleves controlled the qualities right on time in the coral's life cycle — soon after treatment of egg and sperm, when the coral is only one cell. That guaranteed that the hereditary change was as across the board in the subsequent coral's genome as could reasonably be expected. Two of the qualities were in charge of the reef's shading — coding for red and green fluorescent proteins — and one was engaged with directing how new coral settles and develops in a reef.

Cleves and his group upset the qualities utilizing CRISPR and showed that the subsequent fetuses contained the transformed qualities. Making the alters wasn't simple, notwithstanding, since coral just bring forth on more than one occasion a year amid an exceptionally constrained window. Cleves teamed up with Great Barrier Reef coral specialists at the Australian Institute of Marine Science to consummately time the bringing forth, which is synchronized to the full moon. They needed to utilize CRISPR in coral developing lives since a greater amount of the coral's cells would demonstrate the impact of the hereditary alters as it developed.

The outcomes propose that CRISPR could be utilized to take in more about what particular coral qualities do, and in the end, to enable researchers to control them so they may turn out to be stronger to blanching caused by natural anxieties like a dangerous atmospheric devation and contamination. For the time being, Cleves says the innovation won't be utilized to hereditarily design blanch evidence coral, yet to assemble a truly necessary database on coral qualities and their capacities to better comprehend coral science. By disturbing particular qualities and considering which coral capacities are traded off because of the CRISPR mediation, researchers can take in more about the coral's life cycle. They could discover, for instance, that there are a few qualities that assistance coral to withstand the hotter temperatures related with environmental change. “It would be nice to know if there were genes to make corals more or less susceptible to global warming,” says Cleves. “It could be that there are natural populations of coral that are more likely to survive and could help focus conservation efforts.”

Read the complete article by clicking the links below:

Link 1
Link 2

A super-algae to save our seas? Genetic engineering species to save corals

Coral reefs are being negatively impacted by the warming of our oceans, which will ultimately impact a plethora of organisms. Coral reefs have a symbiotic relationship with microalgae. The algae lives in the coral reef and supplies the coral reef with food through the process of photosynthesis. However, due to the warming of our oceans the algae part from the coral reef, causing the coral reef to starve. This  problem is referred to as coral bleaching. In spite of that, a type of algae called Symbiodinium contains more genetic variation than the other types of algae, which allows it to be more tolerant to the stress caused by the warming of the oceans. Scientists want to genetically engineer the Symbiodinium and transfer it to other coral reefs to save them or to genetically engineer other algae to be like the Symbiodinium. There are certain genes in the Symbiodinium that inhibit coral bleaching. Unfortunately, due to the genetic variation found in the Symbiodinium, the successful genetic variation strategies do not work for this type of species. More research and more tests has to be conducted in order to begin to place this heat-stress tolerant algae in other coral reefs.
I believe the discovery of this stress tolerant algae is an enormous step in recuperating coral reefs. Coral reefs are an important ecosystem, thus they provide homes for a plethora of marine organisms. They are also one of the most diverse ecosystem. They also protect coastlines. I think this discovery should not be given up on, no matter how hard it might be due to its genetic coding. If there is ultimately a solution to this problem, it should keep on being research and tested so a solution is found and coral reefs do not go extinct.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170720095111.htm
https://interestingengineering.com/genetically-engineered-corals-could-help-save-the-coral-reefs

Calling all the Crown-of-Thorns

The Crown-of-Thorns Starfish is known as the "Demon Starfish"in Japan and with good reason these predators swarm coral reefs with their spawning events creating colonies with up to several million individuals which in turn devour the reef. This has become a huge environmental concern so efforts are being made to understand how it is that they communicate so efficiently to bring so many individuals together from Australia to Okinawa, and possibly control this invasive species. For this study researchers at University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology teamed up and originally found that the starfish looked at in these two regions shared identical genetic material, meaning that the same species could be found 5000kms on the other side of the equator. The researchers then continued by identifying the water borne molecules the starfish used to communicate, then looking at genetic material that was decoded from two separate individuals from each region. In order to identify the genes collected they preformed an experiment where two Crown-of-Thorns were put in a Y-shaped aquatic maze at separate ends and fed the one at the shorter branch of the Y with water collected form an aggregation of the starfish, as the other one moved towards this branch they suspected that they could find the molecules in the water that induced the starfish to gather. The water was then analyzed and mapped to the starfishes genomic data, and they were able to confirm that the molecules originated from the Crown-of-Thorns because the scientists now had the full genome. Ultimately they exposed 26 specific genes that could take part of production of the 107 water borne communicating signals. The researchers also found that the genome included 750 genes that code for proteins connected to their version of a sense of smell. All of this information could help scientist potentially disrupt communication on a large scale to protect reefs and enforce biological control. I think this is important because it is an environmental issue considering how quickly coral reefs are diminishing and it gives more insight on evolutionary developmental biology.

For more information on biological control: https://biocontrol.entomology.cornell.edu/what.php
Article : https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170405131003.htm

Caribbean Coral Reef Genetic Diversity may allow them to adapt to Climate Change

There are many species of corals in the Caribbean today, however this is probably only about half of what there used to be as half of all the coral species in the Caribbean went extinct between 1 and 2 million years ago and this was due to drastic environmental change in the conditions for which they are present. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute believes that one specific genus, Orbicella which was among the survivors of these environmental conditions will continue to adapt to climate change such as global warming. This is believed because this genus has high genetic diversity.

Fossils were collected from ancient coral reef systems and compared numbers of species at different time points. One of the best represented genus throughout time is Orbicella. In addition to looking at the fossil record, the researchers used genome sequencing to estimate past numbers of many species of Orbicella. This was done by taking one of two genetic material copies within an individual, sometimes one copy is different than the other and this is called a genetic variant. After sequencing the whole genome for a species currently found in Florida they were able to use this as a starting point and reconstruct genetic variation found in other individuals of past and present. With this information they were able to find the sizes of populations of different species throughout the past. This research showed Orbicella has been present in large quantities throughout time and has adapted to changes in its surrounding environment. This could be groundbreaking as many people believed coral reefs could be completely decimated in years to come with the effects of global warming. This study gives hope that maybe some can adapt to the more harsh conditions and allow for corals to be viewable by future generations.

Humans Share an Important Molecule with Coral Reefs

A study done by postdoctoral researcher Rob Quinn at San Diego State University has found a common molecule responsible for immunological roles in both coral reefs and humans. The molecule, platelet activating factor (PAF), was found to be abundant in tissue samples collected from coral reefs off the Southern Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean.

In coral reefs, PAF is most commonly produced when stress is imposed on the reef when the coral is forced to compete with algae. In humans, the molecule is a critical component in the immune system and is produced when the immune system is under attack, much like the coral reefs.

Pristine coral reef located in the Southern Line Islands

This study is significant because from an evolutionary standpoint it suggests the molecule's immune function dates back at least 550 million years. Knowing what PAF levels look like in healthy and unhealthy coral reefs could also provide oceanographers with a biomarker for these ecosystems' health.

I personally think it is amazing that humans and coral reefs can have anything in common let alone a molecule that is so heavily relied on in the immune system. It is always interesting to see what we as a species can be linked to on a molecular level. I’m hopeful that with this discovery we can move one step closer to protecting the coral reefs that play such an important role in our oceans and keeping them healthy.