PMID- 28509908
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20180326
LR  - 20181202
IS  - 1751-7370 (Electronic)
IS  - 1751-7362 (Print)
IS  - 1751-7362 (Linking)
VI  - 11
IP  - 10
DP  - 2017 Oct
TI  - Microbial contributions to the persistence of coral reefs.
PG  - 2167-2174
LID - 10.1038/ismej.2017.66 [doi]
AB  - On contemplating the adaptive capacity of reef organisms to a rapidly changing 
      environment, the microbiome offers significant and greatly unrecognised 
      potential. Microbial symbionts contribute to the physiology, development, 
      immunity and behaviour of their hosts, and can respond very rapidly to changing 
      environmental conditions, providing a powerful mechanism for acclimatisation and 
      also possibly rapid evolution of coral reef holobionts. Environmentally acquired 
      fluctuations in the microbiome can have significant functional consequences for 
      the holobiont phenotype upon which selection can act. Environmentally induced 
      changes in microbial abundance may be analogous to host gene duplication, 
      symbiont switching / shuffling as a result of environmental change can either 
      remove or introduce raw genetic material into the holobiont; and horizontal gene 
      transfer can facilitate rapid evolution within microbial strains. Vertical 
      transmission of symbionts is a key feature of many reef holobionts and this would 
      enable environmentally acquired microbial traits to be faithfully passed to 
      future generations, ultimately facilitating microbiome-mediated transgenerational 
      acclimatisation (MMTA) and potentially even adaptation of reef species in a 
      rapidly changing climate. In this commentary, we highlight the capacity and 
      mechanisms for MMTA in reef species, propose a modified Price equation as a 
      framework for assessing MMTA and recommend future areas of research to better 
      understand how microorganisms contribute to the transgenerational acclimatisation 
      of reef organisms, which is essential if we are to reliably predict the 
      consequences of global change for reef ecosystems.
FAU - Webster, Nicole S
AU  - Webster NS
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-4753-5278
AD  - Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
AD  - Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 
      Queensland, Australia.
FAU - Reusch, Thorsten B H
AU  - Reusch TBH
AD  - GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20170516
PL  - England
TA  - ISME J
JT  - The ISME journal
JID - 101301086
SB  - IM
MH  - Acclimatization
MH  - Animals
MH  - Anthozoa/*microbiology/physiology
MH  - *Coral Reefs
MH  - Evolution, Molecular
MH  - Gene Transfer, Horizontal
MH  - *Microbiota/genetics
PMC - PMC5607359
COIS- The authors declare no conflict of interest.
EDAT- 2017/05/17 06:00
MHDA- 2018/03/27 06:00
PMCR- 2017/10/01
CRDT- 2017/05/17 06:00
PHST- 2016/07/26 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2017/03/13 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2017/04/05 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2017/05/17 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2018/03/27 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2017/05/17 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2017/10/01 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - ismej201766 [pii]
AID - 10.1038/ismej.2017.66 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - ISME J. 2017 Oct;11(10):2167-2174. doi: 10.1038/ismej.2017.66. Epub 2017 May 16.