Lei Jiang, Cheng-Yue Liu, Guoxin Cui, Lin-Tao Huang, Xiao-Lei Yu, You-Fang Sun, Hao-Ya Tong, Guo-Wei Zhou, Xiang-Cheng Yuan, Yi-Si Hu, Wen-Liang Zhou, Manuel Aranda, Pei-Yuan Qian, Hui Huang
Thermal priming of reef corals can enhance their heat tolerance, however, the legacy effects of heat stress during parental brooding on larval resilience remain understudied. This study investigated whether preconditioning adult coral Pocillopora damicornis to high temperatures (29°C and 32°C) could better prepare their larvae for heat stress. Results showed that heat-acclimated adults brooded larvae with reduced symbiont density and shifted thermal performance curves. Reciprocal transplant experiments demonstrated higher bleaching resistance and better photosynthetic and autotrophic performance in heat-exposed larvae from acclimated adults compared to unacclimated adults...
December 18, 2022: Molecular Ecology