2019 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
| Project/Area Number |
18J20226
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| Research Institution | Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University |
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Principal Investigator |
Chuang Po Shun 沖縄科学技術大学院大学, 科学技術研究科, 特別研究員(DC1)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-25 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | Polyp recovery / Polyp bail-out / Transcriptome / Solitary polyps |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In FY2019 I prepared a manuscript entitled “Signaling Pathways in the Coral Polyp Bail-out Response”, based on my finding in FY2018. This paper is currently under review in the journal "Coral Reefs".
Also, in this fiscal year I conducted an experiment to examine the recovery of polyps after coral polyp bail-out. After 5 days of recovery in isosmotic condition, about half of detached polyps resumed morphological features such as tentacles and oral opening. Transcriptomic analysis suggested that around 88% of genetic responses recovered to healthy-colony level in these resumed polyps. While for other polyps, degenerated morphology was observed, with no distinguishable morphological differentiation. Genetic recovery of these degenerated polyps was found to be around 70%, a level significantly lower than that of resumed polyps. Based on this finding, morphologically resumed solitary polyps after 5 days of recovery were considered as physiologically healthy and were subjected to subsequent polyp-scale experiments. In FY2019, a total of three treatments (heat shock, strong light, and hypoosmosis) were tested on detached polyps. Each treatment was applied for 6 h and RNA samples were collected before and after the treatment for a transcriptomic analysis. RNA sequencing has been completed with the using of an Illumina NovaSeq6000 platform. Data are now under analysis.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Due to the failure in resettling detached polyps in FY2018, I decided to change the experimental setup of the polyp-scale experiments. Instead of using resettled polyps, solitary polyps in free-living form will be used directly as experimental subjects. Since resettlement, which was considered as an indicator of polyp healthiness in the original experimental setup, was not observed, in this fiscal year I conducted another experiment to examine the health of polyps in the free-living stage after polyp bail-out. This extra experiment slightly delayed my main polyp-scale experiments, which was scheduled to be completed within this fiscal year. The new plan is now set to finish the analysis and paper writing in early FY2020 and conduct colony-scale experiments as the original plan.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In FY2020 I will first finish the analysis of transcriptomic data collected in FY2019. Although some colony-scale experiments have been conducted in FY2019 with the polyp-scale experiments. More colony-scale experiments will be performed in flowing conditions using a flume tank with both unidirectional and oscillatory flows. In the meantime, I will draft the manuscripts for polyp recovery and for polyp-scale experiments in this year. Submission of these papers are scheduled to be at early and mid FY2020, respectively.
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