Manoa Teaching AwardsJane Kadohiro, Sankaran Krishna, Gregg Lizenbery, Robert Sullivan and Lois Yamauchi recognized. Read more
Coral HealthManoa's Michael Stat, Ruth Gates and Emily Morris discover a new indicator of coral health. Read more
Ocean Research GrantManoa’s David Karl receives $3.79 million to expand microbial ocean inhabitant research. Read morePreserving Rare PlantsThe Lyon Arboretum is awarded $150,000 to manage and restore rare plants. Read more
Food Science FellowManoa’s James Moy is elected as a fellow of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology. Read moreKudosHilo’s Todd Belt and Manoa’s Rosita Chang, Michael Cheang, Christine Kirk-Kuwaye, Pamela Kutara, Judith Mills Wong and UHFC’s Joyce Okabe. Read moreNew Medical ScholarshipThe John A. Burns Foundation donated $1.7 million to establish medical scholarships. Read more
Growing TaroManoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources publishes the second edition of Taro Mauka to Makai. Read more
Coral Health
Manoa researchers Michael Stat, Ruth Gates and Emily Morris discovered a new indicator of coral health in a community of microscopic single-celled algae called dinoflagellates. The study, released in the July 8 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals that a particular type of these algae renders corals more susceptible to disease.
“Corals are fascinating organisms whose survival is dependent on dinoflagellates that live inside the coral’s tissue,” says lead author Stat. “The relationship between these dinoflagellates and corals has long been considered mutually beneficial, with the dinoflagellates supplying the coral with food via photosynthesis in return for recycled nutrients and shelter. Over the last 20 years it has been made clear that there are many different types of dinoflagellates in corals and that the unions or symbiosis between a given coral and their dinoflagellates can be very specific.”
The researchers sampled corals that appeared healthy and corals that appeared diseased from French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. By using genetic analyses, they were able to identify the type of dinoflagellate that was present in each of these corals. They found that the healthy coral contained one type of dinoflagellate and the diseased coral contained a different type of symbiont.
“We show that this same symbiont, called “clade A”, does not produce as much food that can be used by the coral as other types of coral dinoflagellates,” says Stat. “We suggest that because these coral are not receiving enough food they become more prone to disease.”