Warming exacerbates fungal pathogenicity to drive physiological collapse and microbiome reorganization in octocorals

Abstract

Corals are increasingly threatened by climate change, yet the interplay between ocean warming and fungal infection remains experimentally underexplored. Here, we demonstrate that thermal stress exacerbates the pathogenicity of the fungus Aspergillus sydowii, driving physiological collapse and functional reorganization in the octocoral Sclerophytum sp. We deployed a 34-day mesocosm heat-stress experiment and quantified performance, mortality, and taxonomic and functional microbiome shifts. Combined heat and fungal exposure proved highly lethal, causing 45% mortality compared to 7% under heat exposure alone. Re-isolation from diseased nubbins implicates A. sydowii as the causal agent. Metagenomic profiling indicated that physiological collapse was underpinned by a functional transition from mutualism to antagonism in the microbiome. Specifically, combined heat and fungal stress triggered a depletion of ankyrin- and WD40-repeat proteins - hallmarks of symbiotic stability - concurrent with a surge in genes involved in fungal cell wall degradation and secondary metabolite biosynthesis. While surviving holobionts recovered full photosynthetic efficiency after combined stress, their microbiomes did not revert to baseline. Instead, they assembled into a taxonomically distinct configuration characterized by enrichments of sulfate-reducers (Thermodesulfobacteriota) and thermotolerant phototrophs (Thermosynechococcales). This suggests that despite the rapid photosystem recovery, the holobiont retained a complex legacy of thermal and biotic stress across both its internal chemical microenvironment and its microbiome. These findings highlight the decoupled recovery processes of different holobiont components, demonstrating that even though some corals may survive severe climate-driven disease, they emerge as ecologically reorganized entities.