Abstract
Evidence to date indicates that elevated seawater temperatures increase the occurrence of coral disease, which is frequently microbial in origin. Microbial behaviors such as motility and chemotaxis are often implicated in coral colonization and infection, yet little is known about the effect of warming temperatures on these behaviors. Here we present data demonstrating that increasing water temperatures induce two behavioral switches in the coral pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus that considerably augment the bacterium’s performance in tracking the chemical signals of its coral host, Pocillopora damicornis. Coupling field-based heat-stress manipulations with laboratory-based observations in microfluidic devices, we recorded the swimming behavior of thousands of individual pathogen cells at different temperatures, associated with current and future climate scenarios. When temperature reached ⩾23 °C, we found that the pathogen’s chemotactic ability toward coral mucus increased by >60%, denoting an enhanced capability to track host-derived chemical cues. Raising the temperature further, to 30 °C, increased the pathogen’s chemokinetic ability by >57%, denoting an enhanced capability of cells to accelerate in favorable, mucus-rich chemical conditions. This work demonstrates that increasing temperature can have strong, multifarious effects that enhance the motile behaviors and host-seeking efficiency of a marine bacterial pathogen.
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Acknowledgements
We thank DG Bourne, JB Raina, PJ Ralph, V Fernandez, J Guasto, J Lindholm, T Santiano-McHatton, R Schilling and the staff at the Heron Island Research Station. This work was supported by the Human Frontiers in Science Program award no. RGY0089 to RS and JRS, by a Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Investigator Grant (GBMF3783) to RS, by Australian Research Council Grants DP110103091 and FT130100218 to JRS, and by NSF awards CBET-1066566 and CBET-0966000 to RS. We are grateful to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority for coral collection permits G09/31733.1 (PJ Ralph, University of Technology Sydney) and G12/35236.1 (Australian Institute of Marine Science).
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Garren, M., Son, K., Tout, J. et al. Temperature-induced behavioral switches in a bacterial coral pathogen. ISME J 10, 1363–1372 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2015.216
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2015.216
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