Americas Dissertation Research: Heterologous and Comparative Genomic Hybridizations to Acropora Palmata and Montastraea Faveolata Coral Microarrays

This award to Dr. Monica Medina at the University of California - Merced supports graduate student Michael DeSalvo to conduct doctoral dissertation research at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Mr. DeSalvo will be supervised in Mexico by Dr. Roberto Iglesias-Prieto from UNAM's Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología. Mr. DeSalvo's investigation will focus on the molecular basis of stress susceptibility and resistance in coral. Specifically, heterologous hybridization (the binding of nucleic acids onto DNA microarrays from other species) will be used to analyze gene expression patterns in corals across different phylogenetic distances. Coral fragments collected in Puerto Morelos, Mexico, will be subjected to thermal stress under laboratory conditions, and mRNA from the samples will be used to analyze stress-responsive genes and pathways.

In addition to the evolutionary analysis of stress response, a main objective of this study is to measure the efficiency of the heterologous hybridization process, building a foundation for other researchers to use these genomic tools. The research will also strengthen the ongoing collaboration between UC Merced and UNAM, provide international training and experience for a U.S. Ph.D. student, and supply valuable information about the mechanisms of coral bleaching and other climate-change induced stress.