Biology undergraduate student Lea Jinks was part of a team of researchers that found a correlation between a strong immune response in diseased corals and a lower expression of genes associated with growth and reproduction. Along with Associate Professor Laura Mydlarz and graduate students Lauren Fuess and Whitney Man, she analyzed full transcriptomes of three healthy and three diseased specimens of Eunicea calyculata suffering from Eunicea Black Disease. They discovered that diseased corals showed higher activity among groups of genes that work together around stimulus, immune response, and biological adhesion processes. The team published its findings in Royal Society Open Science.
Coral collaboration
