First assessment of viral diversity across corals from the central Red Sea suggests abundant association with Baculoviridae
Name:
SuppTables.xlsx
Size:
70.31Kb
Format:
Microsoft Excel 2007
Description:
Supplementary 1
Type
ThesisAuthors
Ye, Jin
Advisors
Voolstra, Christian R.
Committee members
Moran, Xose Anxelu G.
Tegner, Jesper

Program
BioscienceDate
2018-11Embargo End Date
2019-12-02Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/630111
Metadata
Show full item recordAccess Restrictions
At the time of archiving, the student author of this thesis opted to temporarily restrict access to it. The full text of this thesis became available to the public after the expiration of the embargo on 2019-12-02.Abstract
Coral reefs are among the most diverse marine ecosystems, but they are threatened by climate change. The foundation of reef ecosystems is the coral holobiont or metaorganism that consists of the coral animal host, photosynthetic microalgae, bacteria, and viruses (among other organisms). While microalgae provide the energy for corals to build the massive three-dimensional skeletons, bacteria support functions related to metabolism, immunity, and environmental adaptation. Conversely, the function of viruses is less well understood. Although viruses were previously associated with coral disease and bleaching, we are missing an overall understanding of the diversity and identity of viruses associated with corals, in particular for understudied areas such as the Red Sea. Here we characterized coral-associated viral community composition using a large metagenomic and metatransciptomic dataset covering > 1 billion sequences across > 100 coral samples collected from 14 different coral species in the central Red Sea. The viral sequence portion shows that coral species significantly differ from each other, but the most abundant viral families were consistently present. Notably, we found a pervasive abundance of Baculoviridae in metagenomes. In contrast, Polydnaviridae were the most abundant viruses in metatranscriptomes, highlighting that the combined approach of metagenomics and metatranscriptomics is informative with regard to deciphering viral diversity and activity. Our study provides a first comprehensive description of viruses associated with Red Sea corals. In line with previous studies, we confirm the presence of Baculoviridae, Polydnaviridae, Phycodnaviridae, Mimiviridae, and Herpesviridae, which may be considered viral families that are globally and commonly associated with corals. The reason for the pervasive abundance of Baculoviridae in Red Sea corals at present remains unknown, but it is tempting to speculate that the association is related to the uniquely warm and salty environment of the Red Sea.Citation
Ye, J. (2018). First assessment of viral diversity across corals from the central Red Sea suggests abundant association with Baculoviridae. KAUST Research Repository. https://doi.org/10.25781/KAUST-7X7S3ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.25781/KAUST-7X7S3