Document Type
Article
Publication Title
PLoS Biology
Rights and Access Note
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this item in any way that is permitted by copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. Rights assessment remains the responsibility of the researcher. In addition, no permission is required from the rights-holder(s) for non-commercial uses.
Publication Date
1-1-2019
Issue Number
9
Volume Number
17
Abstract/ Summary
Coral reefs are the most diverse habitats in the marine realm. Their productivity, structural complexity, and biodiversity critically depend on ecosystem services provided by corals that are threatened because of climate change effects—in particular, ocean warming and acidification. The coral holobiont is composed of the coral animal host, endosymbiotic dinoflagellates, associated viruses, bacteria, and other microeukaryotes. In particular, the mandatory photosymbiosis with microalgae of the family Symbiodiniaceae and its consequences on the evolution, physiology, and stress resilience of the coral holobiont have yet to be fully elucidated. The functioning of the holobiont as a whole is largely unknown, although bacteria and viruses are presumed to play roles in metabolic interactions, immunity, and stress tolerance. In the context of climate change and anthropogenic threats on coral reef ecosystems, the Tara Pacific project aims to provide a baseline of the “-omics” complexity of the coral holobiont and its ecosystem across the Pacific Ocean and for various oceanographically distinct defined areas. Inspired by the previous Tara Oceans expeditions, the Tara Pacific expedition (2016–2018) has applied a pan-ecosystemic approach on coral reefs throughout the Pacific Ocean, drawing an east–west transect from Panama to Papua New Guinea and a south–north transect from Australia to Japan, sampling corals throughout 32 island systems with local replicates. Tara Pacific has developed and applied state-of-the-art technologies in very-high-throughput genetic sequencing and molecular analysis to reveal the entire microbial and chemical diversity as well as functional traits associated with coral holobionts, together with various measures on environmental forcing. This ambitious project aims at revealing a massive amount of novel biodiversity, shedding light on the complex links between genomes, transcriptomes, metabolomes, organisms, and ecosystem functions in coral reefs and providing a reference of the biological state of modern coral reefs in the Anthropocene.
Repository Citation
Planes, Serge; Allemand, Denis; Agostini, Sylvain; Banaigs, Bernard; Boissin, Emilie; Boss, Emmanuel; Bourdin, Guillaume; Bowler, Chris; Douville, Eric; Flores, J. M.; Forcioli, Didier; Furla, Paola; Galand, Pierre E.; Ghiglione, Jean François; Gilson, Eric; Lombard, Fabien; Moulin, Clémentine; Pesant, Stephane; Poulain, Julie; Reynaud, Stéphanie; Romac, Sarah; Sullivan, Matthew B.; Sunagawa, Shinichi; Thomas, Olivier P.; Troublé, Romain; De Vargas, Colomban; Thurber, Rebecca Vega; Voolstra, Christian R.; Wincker, Patrick; Zoccola, Didier; and Armstrong, E., "The Tara Pacific expedition—A pan-ecosystemic approach of the “-omics” complexity of coral reef holobionts across the Pacific Ocean" (2019). Marine Sciences Faculty Scholarship. 241.
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/sms_facpub/241
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Planes S, Allemand D, Agostini S, Banaigs B, Boissin E, Boss E, et al. (2019) The Tara Pacific expedition—A pan-ecosystemic approach of the “-omics” complexity of coral reef holobionts across the Pacific Ocean. PLoS Biol 17(9): e3000483. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000483
Publisher Statement
©2019 The Authors
DOI
10.1371/journal.pbio.3000483
Version
publisher's version of the published document
Rights Statement
