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Is citrate synthase an energy biomarker in Southwestern Atlantic corals? A comparative, biochemical approach under a simulated scenario of climate change

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Abstract

The Southwestern Atlantic (SWA) corals are more tolerant to global warming than those from the Caribbean Sea, possibly due to their higher heterotrophy and flexibility of symbiotic associations in nutrient-rich waters. Increased heterotrophy promotes greater energy gain via increased mitochondrial respiration, which can be used to face unfavorable conditions. Citrate synthase (CS) is a pacemaker enzyme of cellular respiration, and its activity can be used as a proxy for maximum aerobic capacity, thus being a potential predictor of organism tolerance against climate change. Therefore, we hypothesized that endemic coral species from SWA would have higher CS activity than those of pan-Caribbean distribution after exposure to a simulated scenario of moderate climate change (seawater temperature increase: + 2.5 °C; seawater acidification: − 0.3 pH unit), according to IPCC. Seven species of scleractinian corals and one hydrocoral species were biochemically evaluated in a phylogenetic perspective. Favia gravida, Mussismilia harttii, Montastraea cavernosa, Porites astreoides and Siderastrea stellata were unresponsive regarding CS activity, whereas Millepora alcicornis, Mussismilia hispida and Porites branneri showed a compensatory effect. Regardless of their phylogenetic relationships, endemic SWA coral species revealed higher CS activity than those of pan-Caribbean distribution. We suggest that the unique evolutionary history of SWA endemic species contributes to their biochemical tolerance to climate change, thus supporting the hypothesis of SWA as a refuge for reef life. Although CS is not a suitable biomarker for assessing the putative effects of climate change owing to its species-specific responses, it is an informative metric to indicate stress tolerance of species with different biogeographic origins. This idea becomes particularly evident for SWA reefs, where such a comparative, biochemical approach highlights the greater tolerance of endemic species at the subcellular level of organization.

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Acknowledgements

The present study was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES - Programa Ciências do Mar, Brasília, DF, Brazil; grant #1984/ 2014 to AB), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, #307647/2016-1 to AB), and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP, #2017/05310-9 to SCF). We are grateful to Coral Vivo Project and its sponsors Petrobras (Programa Petrobras Ambiental) and Arraial d'Ajuda Eco Park. AB is a research fellow from CNPq (Proc. # 307647/2016-1). Corals were collected under MMA/ICMBio # 59974-1 and Secretaria Municipal de Porto Seguro #03/2017 permissions to SCF. We are indebted to C. Pereira, L. Santos and L. Marangoni for helping with field work, laboratory experiment and sample processing. This work constitutes part of a MSc dissertation submitted by MSA to the Graduate Program in Biological Oceanography, Instituto de Oceanografia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande-FURG, Rio Grande, RS, Brazil.

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  1. Instituto de Oceanografia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Rio Grande, RS, 96203-900, Brazil

    Mariana Semola Angonese

  2. Centro de Biologia Marinha, Universidade de São Paulo, São Sebastião, SP, 11612-109, Brazil

    Samuel Coelho Faria

  3. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Rio Grande, RS, 96203-900, Brazil

    Adalto Bianchini

  4. Instituto Coral Vivo, Santa Cruz Cabrália, BA, 45807-000, Brazil

    Adalto Bianchini

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  1. Mariana Semola Angonese
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  2. Samuel Coelho Faria
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Angonese, M.S., Faria, S.C. & Bianchini, A. Is citrate synthase an energy biomarker in Southwestern Atlantic corals? A comparative, biochemical approach under a simulated scenario of climate change. Coral Reefs 41, 213–222 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-021-02215-6

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