School of Science Department of Ocean Science 51 Coral-symbionts Interaction and Evolution Supervisor: WU Longjun / OCES Student: CHEUNG Chun Fei / OST-IRE Course: UROP 1100, Fall The mutualistic endosymbiotic relationship between corals and dinoflagellate algae from the genus Symbiodiniaceae allows coral to grow and form reefs in oligotrophic waters. Yet, anthropogenic influences such as climate change leads to mass coral bleaching, resulting in dysbiosis. To study the coral bleaching mechanism from the transcriptomic approach, Xenia sp., which is a soft coral can be used. Ex-situ heating experiments can induce bleaching, and gene expression analysis using RNA sequencing will be performed at different time points of bleaching to understand coral bleaching better. Currently, few studies perform heating on Xenia sp., yet due to its fast-growing, high tolerance and readily available chromosome-level genome assembly features, it serves as a good subject for study. Coral-symbionts Interaction and Evolution Supervisor: WU Longjun / OCES Student: GO Leeanne Jewel Caoile / DASC Course: UROP 1100, Fall This report discusses a research project that aims to enhance the resistance of corals’ symbiotic algae to increased temperatures. One culture has been conducted, and data has been collected weekly over three weeks. The data shows the continuous growth in cell density of the two samples of Symbiodiniaceae C1, which is a promising sign of the algae’s healthy development. This report also highlights challenges encountered such as uncertainty and inaccuracies in experimentation, despite which significant progress has been made in the past month. The project and the challenges encountered represent a crucial step towards understanding and enhancing algal resistance to temperature, and to climate change, which may aid in strengthening their defense against coral bleaching. Exploring the Mechanisms of the Reverse Development of Immortal Jellyfish Turritopsis Supervisor: WU Longjun / OCES Student: DALMIA Ayush / BCB-IRE Course: UROP 1100, Fall UROP 2100, Summer Turritopsis sp., credited for its extraordinary ability to undergo reverse development (RD), is the epitome of immortality. Cesium chloride (CsCl), an inorganic salt, is a potent chemical to induce larval metamorphosis or RD in Turritopsis sp, depending on the CsCl concentrations. The effect of four different concentrations of CsCl solution on the jellyfish was studied, with two batches of Turritopsis. The morphological changes were observed and noted. Additionally, heat shock bioassays were conducted to artificially induce RD on the first batch. The paper might provide interesting insights into using CsCl and heat shock as an RD’s inducer. The study did not produce statistically significant data as the experiment used a small sample size, thereby, suggesting the inability to generalize the results.
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