Journal of Tropical Oceanography ›› 2024, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (3): 40-48.doi: 10.11978/2022182cstr: 32234.14.2022182

• Marine Biology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of ocean acidification on the calcification and gene expression in coral Acropora hyacinthus*

YUAN Xiangcheng1,2,3,4,5(), LIANG Yuxian1,2,3,6, SONG Yan1,2,3,6, YU Xiaolei1,2,3,6, HUANG Hui1,2,3,4,5, ZHOU Weihua1,2,3,4,5()   

  1. 1. CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China
    2. CAS-HKUST Sanya Joint Laboratory of Marine Science Research, Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Biotechnology of Hainan Province, Sanya Marine Ecological Environment Engineering Research Institute, Sanya 572000, China
    3. Sanya Institute of Marine Ecological Environment Engineering, Tropical Marine Biological Research Station in Hainan, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sanya 572000, China
    4. South China Sea Ecological Environment Engineering Innovation Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China
    5. Guangdong Provincial Laboratory of Southern Marine Science and Engineering (Guangzhou), Guangzhou 511458, China
    6. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2022-08-23 Revised:2022-12-22 Online:2024-05-10 Published:2022-12-15
  • Supported by:
    National Key Research and Development Program of China(2021YFF0502800)

Abstract:

We studied the responses of coral Acropora hyacinthus to the increase of CO2, with a simulated experiment in which corals were cultured in natural seawater as the control group with pCO2 of 565 μatm and in high CO2 treatment with pCO2 of 1135 μatm. The effects of seawater acidification on the calcification and gene expression were investigated. The results showed that under acidification stress, the calcification rate of A. hyacinthus significantly decreased, and the gene expression was greatly affected. As the pathways of organic matter transport, anion transport, chemical stress were up-regulated, and animal organ development, lipid transport, cell biosynthesis, cell surface receptor signal and other pathways were down-regulated. Among the calcification related genes, carbonic anhydrase was down-regulated, and Ca2+-ATPase and calcium ion transport related genes were up-regulated. This experiment showed that high CO2 significantly affected the calcification and gene expression of A. hyacinthus, in which the decrease of calcification was mainly due to the down-regulation of carbonic anhydrase resulting in the decrease of $\mathrm{HCO}_{3}^{-}$.

Key words: seawater acidification, Acropora hyacinthus, gene expression, calcification