Genomic determinants of coral heat tolerance across latitudes

As global warming continues, reef-building corals could avoid local population declines through "genetic rescue" involving exchange of heat-tolerant genotypes across latitudes, but only if latitudinal variation in thermal tolerance is heritable. Here, we show an up–to–10-fold increase in o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2015-06, Vol.348 (6242), p.1460-1462
Main Authors: Dixon, Groves B., Davies, Sarah W., Aglyamova, Galina A., Meyer, Eli, Bay, Line K., Matz, Mikhail V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Climate
Climate change
Coral reefs
Corals
Evolution
Genetics
Global warming
Heat tolerance
Latitude
Ocean temperature
Populations
Stresses
Tolerances
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Summary:As global warming continues, reef-building corals could avoid local population declines through "genetic rescue" involving exchange of heat-tolerant genotypes across latitudes, but only if latitudinal variation in thermal tolerance is heritable. Here, we show an up–to–10-fold increase in odds of survival of coral larvae under heat stress when their parents come from a warmer lower-latitude location. Elevated thermal tolerance was associated with heritable differences in expression of oxidative, extracellular, transport, and mitochondrial functions that indicated a lack of prior stress. Moreover, two genomic regions strongly responded to selection for thermal tolerance in interlatitudinal crosses. These results demonstrate that variation in coral thermal tolerance across latitudes has a strong genetic basis and could serve as raw material for natural selection.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1261224