Abstract
Corals are sessile invertebrates that rely on relatively stable environmental parameters for longevity and survivorship. There is a myriad of microbial associations that provide beneficial functions to the coral host and its associated microbiome. Although not all coral-microbial associations are beneficial and during periods of environmental perturbations, the microbiome shifts through host stress and pathogenic microbes can proliferate. The majority of microbe-host associations in corals remain unknown, such as the function of the highly abundant apicomplexans, the corallicolids within the holobiont. By first understanding what microbes the coral host, Pseudodiploria strigosa, associates with during a healthy state we can establish a baseline. Additionally, by analyzing what protein-level machinery the host is producing can provide insight to better understanding the functional contribution from the microbiome. Previous literature has shown environmental parameters such as light and oxygen availability play a large role in what proteins and enzymatic reactions are required for homeostasis. Therefore, analyzing the host and its associated microbiome over six-hour intervals through replicated days can provide a higher resolution with respect to what is occurring mechanistically at a cellular-level through day and night cycles. Using this baseline, microbial assemblages and host transcriptional responses can be compared to provide context into how the coral and its associated microbiome undergoes disease progression. Using several coral diseases collected from Curaçao, such as black band disease, red band disease, Caribbean ciliate infection, and stony coral tissue loss disease, we can use comparative multiomics to study the holobiont of the reef-forming coral, Pseudodiploria strigosa through health and disease.