Hugo is originally from France, where he grew up until pursuing his university studies in the UK. There he obtained a BSc in Biology (University of Bristol) and MSc in Biotechnology (University of Edinburgh). Before starting his PhD, Hugo spent was researching biotechnological applications of cyanobacteria at the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research in Portugal.

Bioengineering coral endosymbiotic microalgae (Symbiodiniaceae) to improve coral resilience to increasing ocean temperatures.

2020 to 2023

Project Description

The project will aim to develop corals that display increased bleaching resilience. To this end, lab-evolved symbionts (Symbiodiniaceae) that display improved heat tolerance will be used to inoculate aposymbiotic corals. The engineered corals will then be exposed to elevated temperatures and monitored for bleaching tolerance.

Project Importance

This project is important as it may provide a means of "future proofing" corals in a context of climate change and increasing ocean temperatures. Bleaching events linked to heat waves have increased in prevalence in the recent years and are predicted to increase in frequency. Hence there is an urgent need to develop restoration strategies that will enable corals to withstand these worsening conditions, which this project aims to achieve.

Project Methods

Bleached corals will first need to obtained in the lab by using menthol bleaching. Subsequently, heat tolerant Symbiodiniaceae strains will be inoculated into these corals. The engineered corals will then be exposed to bleaching conditions and tested for improved resilience. If promising results are obtained, field trials will be attempted with engineered corals.

Project Results

A key question that will be investigated by this project will be whether heat tolerance in Symbiodiniaceae can actually confer bleaching resilience to their coral hosts. Previous studies involving coral larvae and the anemone E.pallida have shown that bleaching resilience can be achieved through this means. However, this project would be the first to demonstrate this phenomenon in mature corals.

Keywords

Algae,
Climate change,
Coral reefs,
Corals,
Interaction,
Manipulative experiments,
Microbiology,
Ocean warming,
Physiology