Publications by authors named "D A Conetta"
Viruses can affect coral health by infecting their symbiotic dinoflagellate partners (Symbiodiniaceae). Yet, viral dynamics in coral colonies exposed to environmental stress have not been studied at the reef scale, particularly within individual viral lineages. We sequenced the viral major capsid protein (mcp) gene of positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses known to infect symbiotic dinoflagellates ('dinoRNAVs') to analyze their dynamics in the reef-building coral, Porites lobata.
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- Spatial genetic structure (SGS) is crucial for how populations adapt to environmental changes, particularly in species that can reproduce both sexually and asexually, such as reef-building corals.
- In a study of nearly 600 Montipora capitata colonies in Kāne'ohe Bay, researchers found that asexual reproduction (clonal colonies) was relatively rare but significantly influenced spatial genetic distributions, especially in high wave energy areas.
- While environmental factors like temperature and wave height predicted some genetic variation, they only accounted for 5% of it, indicating that genetic diversity persists in this impacted ecosystem, suggesting potential for adaptation to environmental pressures.
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- Corals are essential for diverse reef ecosystems and are threatened by warming oceans, so the study investigates the thermal stress response of Hawaiian rice coral during a spawning event.
- Researchers analyzed transcriptomic and polar metabolomic data over 5 weeks to identify thermal stress-related genes and metabolites, aiming to understand gene-metabolite interactions and their potential as markers of stress.
- Findings showed that thermal stress affects various biological functions in corals, expanding gene co-expression networks and leading to suppressed metabolite transport as the coral approaches bleaching.
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- Understanding how coral holobionts react to environmental changes is vital for effective conservation, especially in the context of coral bleaching caused by thermal stress.
- Using untargeted metabolite profiling, researchers studied the physiological responses of coral species to heat stress with the aim of finding early markers for bleaching.
- The study identified specific co-regulated dipeptides that vary between symbiotic and aposymbiotic populations of the sea anemone Aiptasia, indicating their potential as diagnostic markers for thermal stress in wild corals.
Background: Decompensated heart failure may present with severe hypertension in patients with preserved (PreEF) or reduced left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (RedEF) and is clinically indistinguishable. Previously, we demonstrated that arterial pressure elevation increases LV filling pressures in a canine model of chronic LV dysfunction with PreEF or RedEF. It is not clear whether any differences in hemodynamics, LV volume or performance, or diastolic function can be demonstrated between canines with PreEF or RedEF in response to arterial pressure elevation.
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