Biology subjects

Huzar, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Huzar, A..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Environmental drivers of metabolomic profiles within and between cryptic lineages of Montastraea cavernosa, the great star coral

Reef restoration practitioners aim to preserve coral genetic diversity by protecting reefs and cultivating diverse genotypes in coral nurseries. However, cryptic genetic lineages in most corals complicate restoration strategies, as the role of between-lineage genetic divergence remains unclear regarding adaptation. In Montastraea cavernosa, researchers have identified cryptic lineages, some strongly segregated by depth. We conducted a ten-week reciprocal transplantation experiment using two cryptic lineages restricted to shallow water (<10m depth), with one lineage more common on nearshore reefs and the other on offshore reefs. We aimed to quantify lineage-specific responses to the environment that explain the genetic and ecological divergence between the two lineages. Surprisingly, the strongest response was not lineage-specific. Instead, both lineages exhibited strong and similar changes in growth and metabolomic profiles, depending on the transplantation habitat. These results suggest that cryptic lineages employ similar mechanisms of adaptation and acclimatization to environmental challenges, despite their genetic distinction.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

The Acropora millepora microbiome is predicted by algal symbionts, host genetics, and environment

The coral microbiome is a critical component of coral health and resilience, yet it is unclear what factors drive coral microbiome composition, especially within the context of coral bleaching. Here, we use whole genome sequencing data combined with a machine learning approach (RDAforest) to assess predictors of the microbiome in 208 colonies of Acropora millepora from 12 reef sites in the Central Great Barrier Reef during a 2016 bleaching event. We characterized microbiome variation using k-mers. While some environmental variables, such as chlorophyll seasonal range and maximum degree heating weeks, were associated with microbiome composition, we find that host genetics and dominant photosymbionts were more powerful predictors. In contrast, bleaching score had negligible predictive power. The corals microbiome therefore correlates with dominant photosymbiont identity even during a bleaching event. The association of the microbiome with the environment suggests that the coral microbiome can serve as a proxy for environmental variation when environment cannot be measured directly, which may be especially useful in ancient DNA studies.

evolutionary biology↗