Doctoral student uses noninvasive method to determine species found on reefs

UM doctoral student Kayleigh Mazariegos retrieves recording equipment from an artificial reef near Cat Island in the Gulf of Mexico. Mazariegos deployed the devices for a week to capture the sounds of fish and other creatures living around the reefs. Submitted photo

Grunts, purrs, barks and knocks – it may be surprising to learn that these noises can come from fish. Known as fish vocalizations, these sounds are the subject of a new study at the University of Mississippi Department of Biology.

Kayleigh Mazariegos, a third-year doctoral student in biology, is leading a project to determine whether fish vocalizations can identify fish species. The Acworth, Georgia, native is focusing her research on artificial reefs in the Gulf of Mexico.

“I’m interested in artificial reefs because I used to fish them,” Mazariegos said. “Research on artificial reefs is limited. While people are able to catch fish on them, we don’t know their ecological role. We don’t know if they help increase fish and their relationship with ecological processes.”

Kayleigh Mazariegos shows off some of the equipment she used to capture the sounds of underwater creatures in the Gulf of Mexico at the Mississippi Aquarium. Mazariegos partnered with the aquarium on the study, which aims to determine whether fish vocalizations can be used to identify various species. Submitted photo

Mazariegos received funding from the American Museum of Natural History and the university’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation Research to conduct this work.

The research seeks to apply the principle of island biogeography to reefs, said Richard Buchholz, professor of biology and Mazariegos’ adviser. The theory examines why some islands have a certain number and diversification of species and others do not. However, specific challenges coincide with exploring this in the Gulf.

“The problem with the Gulf of Mexico is that you can’t put cameras down there because the water is too turbid and cloudy,” said Buchholz, who is also CBCR director.

“An alternative to catching is using acoustic sampling. It is a sophisticated method that has been used in animals like bats and birds for 10-15 years but hasn’t been widely used in aquatic habitats.”

This summer, Mazariegos partnered with the Mississippi Aquarium in Gulfport to record the sounds of various species. She then placed small recording devices – about the size of a GoPro – on 12 reefs off Cat Island, a Mississippi barrier island.

Mazariegos is conducting a complex analysis of data from those weeklong recordings with help from the National Center for Physical Acoustics at Ole Miss.

A nighttime recording (top) from one of the artificial reefs features a chorus of sea trout and a call from a black drum (near the beginning). This recording was made at 1:25 a.m. in early August.
A daytime recording (bottom) from one of the Cat Island reefs features sounds of shrimp snapping. This recording was made at shortly after noon in early August.

“For some fish, you can get down to a specific family or genus, and others you can see that it’s this specific fish,” she said.

Despite just beginning to learn how to analyze acoustic data, Mazariegos expects her preliminary data set to spawn results by December.

An important element to the project is utilization of the GulfSeeLife app. The UM-developed app, funded via a RESTORE Act grant from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, allows “citizen scientists” to record observations about plants and animals in the Gulf of Mexico.

Mazariegos is using the community science feature of GulfSeeLife to collect fish capture data that can be compared to the diversity of fish identified through acoustic recordings on the reefs.

The researcher said that her favorite aspect of the project is the noninvasive nature of this approach.

“The usual way is capturing them or using cameras,” Mazariegos said. “You could miss a lot because there are a lot of species that are more cryptic – they may be scared away or too small to be caught on hook and line.

Kayleigh Mazariegos used small audio recorders, about the size of a GoPro, on 12 artificial reefs near Cat Island in the Gulf of Mexico. Submitted photo

“With vocalizations, you don’t have to have an eye on them, and you can tell what’s there based on how they are behaving naturally. I think it’s a good idea to make these data more accessible and easier to collect.”

The Gulf is still feeling the effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, plus consequences from unprecedented warm waters and the influx of tourists to its beaches, Buchholz said. Mazariegos’ efforts to determine the role of artificial reefs could have important conservation implications in the face of those challenges, he said.

“Artificial reefs could be constructed in a way that is helpful to biodiversity – to things that fish eat and even things that eat fishes,” Buchholz said. “If you can maintain that food web in the face of all those challenges to living things in the Gulf, then we can protect that biodiversity.”

This research is supported by the Lerner-Gray Fund for Marine Research of the American Museum of Natural History.

Biology chair investigates wild soybeans for resistant properties

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OXFORD, Miss. – A devastating pest for soybean farmers may soon be a problem of the past, thanks to research conducted by a University of Mississippi biologist.

Sixue Chen, chair of the Department of Biology, is collaborating with researchers nationwide to combat a microscopic roundworm that causes up to 50% of a soybean crop’s yield loss.

“We are trying to solve a real-world problem – the soybean is a very important legume crop,” Chen said. “It supplies more than half of the vegetable oil in the world and is a significant source of protein, contributing to foods like tofu.”

Harvest season for the soybean – Mississippi’s second-most valuable agricultural commodity – began in mid-August. Mississippi farmers planted nearly 2.3 million acres of soybeans in 2023, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

Funded by a five-year Plant Genome Research Program award from the National Science Foundation, the research is targeting resistance to the soybean cyst nematode, or SCN.

“Soybeans are challenged by the soybean cyst nematode, the most devastating pest worldwide causing over $1.5 billion yield loss annually in the U.S. soybean production,” said Bao-Hua Song, lead researcher and biology professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

“Deploying SCN-resistant soybean varieties is the most efficient and environmentally friendly strategy for managing this damage.”

This approach is challenging, however. SCN populations evolve rapidly, resistance varies by SCN type and current resistant soybean cultivars are losing their resistance due to very limited genetic variation, Song said.

“It’s a tug of war – sometimes farmers will win the war and sometimes the pathogens,” Chen said. “Recently, the variety that farmers are growing has started to lose the war.

“The nematode evolves very fast, and cultivated soybeans have lost a lot of diversity during the domestication process. Breeders really care about yield, and they overlook defense capabilities.”

To tackle this, the research team is “going back to the wild,” Chen said.

“We know there are wild soybeans that maintain a lot of genetic variation, and they are resistant to nematodes,” he said. “We will try to learn from the wild soybean and see what they have in their genetics that gives them a broad spectrum of resistance. That’s what we need in the cultivated soybean.”

The scientists are using modern tools to evaluate wild soybeans and compare their genetic makeup to cultivated ones. These methods take significantly less time than traditional genetics, which could take decades, Chen said.

“We have a tool in the lab that we can screen for the functions of these genetic parts of the plant,” he said. “They get generated really fast – within a few days, we know this part is important and it shows a promising effect.”

Once these parts are determined, the team will give these traits back to cultivated soybeans and optimize them so the plants will both defend against the nematode and produce seeds.

Results of the study will deepen the understanding of the molecular basis underlying nematode defense and ultimately enable the development of new and diverse soybean varieties with broad-spectrum SCN resistance, Song said.

“This will positively affect soybean farmers by increasing their yields with less pest spray, which is significant to agriculture and environmental sustainability,” she said.

This project is personal to Chen, who values the opportunity to contribute to solving food insecurity challenges in Mississippi.

“In our state, almost a quarter of people go to bed hungry,” he said. “That is shocking to me. I grew up on a farm really poor in China, and I experienced these issues.

“Half a century has passed since I grew up – and now in the No. 1 country, in the beautiful state of Mississippi, children are still hungry.”

An additional aspect of the grant involves educational outreach that will target college students, as well as train public school teachers in modern biology technologies, such as those used in this research.

“We want to ensure that students from low-income households, first-generation students and minorities have the opportunity to pursue career paths in sciences and make sure they have a better future,” Chen said.

“When I write proposals, I always think of the challenges our state has. Because we work at a university, I think we have a responsibility to our community, our state.”

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2318746 via subaward from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte under 20230623-01-UMS.

Dr. Sixue Chen, Professor and Chair of Biology, has received a five-year Plant Genome Research Program (PGRP) Award from the National Science Foundation. The project title is: Uncover new molecular mechanisms of cyst nematode resistance in wild soybean with systems biology and genome editing. The total award amount is $2,816,109, and Dr. Chen’s portion is $798,630. It is a collaborative project with Univ. North Carolina (Dr. Baohua Song, PI) and Univ. Alabama (Dr. Shahid Mukhtar, co-PI).

Yongjian Qiu awarded $1 million to find biological solutions to agricultural challenges

Biologist Yongjian Qiu (right) works with Ole Miss graduate student Anupa Wasti in his lab in Shoemaker Hall. Working to understand the processes that alert plants when to absorb sunlight, Qiu has been awarded a $1 million CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation to fund the project. Submitted photo

The National Science Foundation has awarded University of Mississippi biologist Yongjian Qiu a $1 million grant to further his research into the effects of global warming on crops.

Designed to help new teacher-scholars establish their research programs, the NSF CAREER grant will help Qiu conduct more in-depth analysis of the processes that alert plants when to absorb sunlight: phytochrome-interacting factors and HEMERA protein signaling.

“This project is highly relevant to plant growth, development and crop yield under the changing climate,” said Sixue Chen, UM professor and chair of biology.

Qiu’s lab, which focuses on biological solutions to agricultural challenges, is working to solve a problem caused by increasing temperatures due to global warming: a plant stem grows too fast, damaging the plant’s biomass and leading to severe crop reductions. Their goal is to develop climate-smart crops.

To conduct the study, they are evaluating plant growth in controlled warm, nonstressful environments, a process known as thermomorphogenesis.

Yongjian Qiu is building on his earlier studies of plant growth to understand how different parts of plants react to rising temperatures. Submitted photo

“We try to see how plants can cope with this warmer climate,” Qiu said.

While many scientists focus on how plants respond to high-temperature heat stress, Qiu’s team is instead studying the effects of using slightly warmer than normal temperatures, which can have a dramatic effect how fast a plant grows, when it flowers and the density of the stomata.

Qiu had previously discovered that plants cannot grow their stem in warm temperatures without the presence of the HEMERA protein. To advance his research, Qiu needed to isolate parts of the plant to determine their individual reactions to rising temperatures.

Using an Early-concept Grant for Exploratory Research, Qiu worked with Yiwei Han, UM assistant professor of mechanical engineering, to develop micro-heaters, only 1 millimeter-by-1 millimeter in size. Produced using a 3D printer, the micro-heaters are used to elevate the temperatures of certain plant areas, such as leaves, to isolate how plants adjust to varying environmental conditions.

Their results, detailed in a TEDxUniversityofMississippi talk earlier this year, offer some promising possibilities.

“When a leaf is exposed to extreme heat, a heat-shock protein is highly induced, not only in that leaf but also in distal leaves and the stem,” Qiu said. “There is some signal – communications – between the organs stem, leaf, roots.

Yongjian Qiu is using a plant called Arabidopsis thaliana, a small type of cress, in his project to understand the processes that alert plants when to absorb sunlight. His goal is to develop climate-smart crops. Submitted photo

“We want to see if some sort of signaling molecules can be delivered.”

To develop results on a cellular level, the two researchers are collaborating again to develop even tinier wireless micro-devices that can be placed onto organs and into the cells of plants.

“We want to make an easier, more consistent way to generate heat,” Qiu said. “Also, we want to see whether we can place the heater into the cell, micrometer size. This is very challenging.

“Inside the cell, there is fluid, the cytoplasm, so the heater may move, even rotate. We plan to address this challenge, and once we do, it will be a significant advancement.

The goal is to discover exactly how PIF4/HMR-mediated thermomorphogenesis happens in plants.

Qiu and his Ole Miss team are using a plant called Arabidopsis thaliana, a type of cress in the mustard family.

“It is the best study model plant because it has a smaller genome, and it can produce seeds in large amounts and within a relatively short period,” he said. “Its lifespan is usually two to three months, and again makes tens of thousands of seeds in one single plant.

“The genome is very small – only five chromosomes. It is difficult but readily transferable results that transfer to crop studies like vegetables because they share a lot of conserved genes.”

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 2239963 and 2200200.

Prestigious STEM scholarships awarded to Mississippi natives

April 3, 2023 by Erin Garrett

For the second year in a row, three University of Mississippi students have been awarded Goldwater Scholarships in a single year.

All native Mississippians, Christian Boudreaux, of Oxford; Noah Garrett, of Madison; and Alyssa Stoner, of Gulfport are the university’s 22nd, 23rd and 24th students to receive the coveted scholarships.

“As a cohort, these students are amazing,” said Vivian Ibrahim, director of the UM Office of National Scholarship Advisement. “They are scientists who care passionately about their research. They have all presented their work, so they can make complex scientific data accessible and understandable to the public.”

Goldwater Scholar Christian Boudreaux, a sophomore biology major, plans to attend graduate school to study marine biology. Submitted photo

This year, the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation awarded 413 scholarships from a pool of 1,267 undergraduates nominated by 427 institutions.

The Goldwater is one of the oldest and most prestigious national scholarships in the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics in the United States. It identifies and supports exceptional sophomores and juniors who show promise of becoming the nation’s next generation of research leaders in these fields.

Boudreaux is a sophomore biology major with a specific interest in marine biology.

“For me, there is no other biome or scientific topic on Earth that holds as much intrigue as the ocean,” said Boudreaux, who is also a Stamps Scholar. “The wealth and diversity of life that exists there is endlessly fascinating to me and is something that I want to devote my life to better understanding.”

Turning his passion into action is a priority for Boudreaux.

“Barely a semester into his college career, Christian instigated and founded Aqua Culture, an environment conservation student organization,” said Tamar Goulet, professor of biology. “Christian’s conservation initiative, so early in his college career, speaks volumes about how capable Christian is and his huge potential.”

Aqua Culture works to protect and conserve marine and freshwater environments, while introducing Ole Miss students to waterways that surround the campus. Members participate in trash clean-ups, invasive species removal, water testing and a range of other service projects relating to protecting the aquatic environments throughout Mississippi.

Boudreaux is studying abroad in Ecuador as part of a comparative ecology and conservation program.

Noah Garrett, a junior studying chemistry and mathematics, plans to use his Goldwater Scholarship to continue his research as well as set him up for future scholarships and National Science Foundation grants. Submitted photo

“It has been incredible, and we have learned a great deal about the ecology of Ecuador,” he said. “I am living with a host family, so my Spanish has improved a great deal. In a few weeks, we will be leaving for our independent study project period where I will either be working in the Amazon or the Galapagos conducting a project of my own creation.”

After graduation, Boudreaux plans to apply to graduate school to study marine biology with the eventual goal of working as a researcher and professor at a higher education institution.

Garrett is a junior studying chemistry and mathematics. He was initially drawn to these degrees for their applications in research.

“I find math and problem-solving intriguing, so it has been a very rewarding experience studying these subjects at Ole Miss,” Garrett said.

Garrett is conducting research under the advisement of Ryan Fortenberry, associate professor of chemistry, in his computational astrochemistry lab.

“We’ve had four Goldwater Scholars in a row from our research group, and I’m so excited that Noah was able to continue that for us,” Fortenberry said. “Noah is a wonderful student and a dedicated researcher. He is one of the most easygoing people that I’ve ever worked with.”

Garrett said the Goldwater will help him continue his research as well as set him up for future scholarships and National Science Foundation grants.

“Becoming a Goldwater scholar has been a goal of mine since I first joined my research lab, and by obtaining such a prestigious award it has become one of the proudest moments of my life for myself, my family and my mentors,” he said.

“It is an amazing feeling to win an award that will reflect my years of research experience and hard work in all of my classes, as well as my future aspirations towards research and science.”

Garrett plans to ultimately obtain a doctorate in theoretical chemistry while continuing to perform computational research and studying many aspects of computer science.

Alyssa Stoner, a junior biology major, plans to use her Goldwater Scholarship to continue studying the molecular processes behind life in preparation for a career in research. Submitted photo

Stoner is a junior biology major who is interested in molecular biology.

“I love researching the processes behind life,” Stoner said. “I enjoy putting together the different pieces of life and thinking about them on a genetic level. I feel almost like I’m doing a puzzle.”

As a supplemental instruction leader for genetics, she mentors her peers in this historically challenging subject. In this role, she facilitates student learning by designing mini lesson plans, discussing topics covered in the class and creating practice problems, among other tasks.

“Alyssa also serves as a supplemental instruction mentor in addition to her SI leader responsibilities,” said Hannah Glass, program manager for supplemental instruction. “This involves her in our marketing efforts.

“She is very dedicated to the program as a whole and dedicated to the success of the students who are in her courses.”

Stoner is working on her thesis for the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College under the advisement of Yongjian Qiu, assistant professor of biology. Following graduation, Stoner plans to pursue a doctorate in molecular biology and conduct research at an academic institution, biotechnology company or museum.

“The Goldwater will be a great addition to my resume when I apply to a Ph.D. program,” Stoner said. “I hope it shows that research is something that I want to dedicate my life to. I am committed to it, and I have the capability as well.”

For more information on the Goldwater Scholarships and how to apply for them, contact the Office of National Scholarship Advisement at onsa@olemiss.edu.

UM biologist receives National Institutes of Health award to study heart formation

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Biology professor Joshua Bloomekatz (left) and doctoral student Rabina Shrestha examine a tank of zebrafish. Bloomekatz and his research team are using the fish, which has heart processes similar to humans, to study how cardiac cells rearrange themselves to form structures of the heart. Photo by Kevin Bain/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services

OXFORD, Miss. – A University of Mississippi biologist is asking big questions about the development of the human heart, and a new National Institutes of Health grant may help him find the answers.

“When I think about life’s big picture, I think one of the great mysteries is how we go from a single cell to a whole human being,” said Joshua Bloomekatz, assistant professor of biology. “Our research looks at how the heart develops – how embryos go from a group of amorphous cells to having a pumping, beating heart.”

The NIH awarded Bloomekatz $411,969 to conduct a new study that could help scientists understand why congenital heart defects, or CHDs, occur. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CHDs affect about 40,000 births per year. This is caused by defects in the heart’s development, Bloomekatz said.

Zebrafish embryos develop externally, or outside the maternal body. UM professor Joshua Bloomekatz is filming the fish’s heart development in real time as its cells move. Submitted photo

“This is fundamental biology in the sense that if we learn how things normally happen – how cells form and how cell movement happens – we can take this knowledge and use it when things go wrong,” he said.

“If we can understand the basic fundamental processes that create form in the heart, we can hopefully contribute to the understanding of how congenital heart defects occur.”

The study investigates how cardiac cells rearrange themselves to form structures of the heart, specifically the heart tube.

To answer this question, Bloomekatz and his team will observe zebrafish embryos. Surprisingly, this freshwater fish’s heart has similar processes to human hearts.

“The cool thing about the zebrafish embryo is that development happens externally outside of the maternal body,” he said. “We can film the development in real time as the cells move.”

The study uses a high-resolution microscope at the GlyCORE Imaging Core. The core gives investigators access to a wide range of advanced microscopy instrumentation.

Bloomekatz said another important aspect of this project is an emphasis on educational research experiences. He has invited both undergraduate and graduate students to participate in the innovative study.

Rabina Shrestha, fifth-year biology doctoral student from Kathmandu, Nepal, is studying intercellular signaling that regulates the movement of myocardial cells during heart tube formation. She said that this knowledge could have broad applications.

Pictured here are different shapes of cardiomyocytes during heart tube formation. Biology professor Joshua Bloomekatz and his team will investigate how these cells rearrange to form the heart tube. Submitted image

“Collective cell migration occurs at several stages of cardiac development, including during heart tube assembly, valvulogenesis, the initiation of trabeculation and it is also important during directional migration of several other organ progenitors such as the mesoderm and neural crest cells,” Shrestha said.

“Thus, our findings are likely applicable to a broad range of developmental processes and disease.”

Christian Miller, a senior biomedical engineering student from Bentonville, Arkansas, is assisting Bloomekatz by 3D-printing molds that hold and orient the zebrafish embryos so that they can be imaged as they develop.

“This is meaningful research because of the impact it has on our own understanding of heart development, and this understanding’s contribution to helping stop the leading cause of death in the United States: cardiovascular disease” Miller said.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award No. R15HD108782. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Yongjian Qiu wins prestigious NSF Career Award

Dr. Yongjian Qiu will use the $1 million award to aid in discovering gene expression mechanisms in plant thermomorphogenesis.  The National Science Foundation Career Awards are highly prestigious and only offered to faculty members who demonstrate the potential to serve as teacher-scholar role models in research and education.

ABSTRACT

In the context of global climate change, plants face a more fluctuating temperature environment. It is well known that extreme temperatures such as heatwaves have detrimental impacts on crop production and biodiversity. However, even smaller increases in ambient temperatures would dramatically change the growth and development of various plant species. These thermo-induced changes in the growth speed of organs (e.g., stem and roots), biomass, flowering time, the rate of photosynthesis, and the efficiency of water usage, significant impact crop yield and fitness. However, the precise mechanisms by which plants sense and respond to moderately increased, nonstressful (warm) temperatures are still unclear. The long-term goal of the proposed project is to elucidate the regulatory mechanisms by which warm temperatures trigger the expression of critical genes whose products contribute to the morphological and architectural changes in land plants. To achieve this goal, innovative technologies have been developed or adapted to examine the spatiotemporal functions and structure-function relationships of critical transcriptional regulators and their co-factors in thermosensory growth. Understanding these mechanisms is crucial for us to design and breed climate-resilient crops, potentially reducing the adverse effects of global warming on crop productivity and food security. The success of the project will also help train next-generation scientists from high school to graduate levels in performing cutting-edge research.

Different from the stress responses triggered by extreme temperatures, plant responses to nonstressful ambient temperature fluctuations require unique machinery. Among the discovered components, thermosensory transcription factors (TTFs) play primary roles in warm-temperature-induced hypocotyl (embryonic stem) growth, a process termed thermomorphogenesis. Among the identified TTF families, PIF4 plays a pivotal role in modulating thermomorphogenetic growth. Warm temperatures activate PIF4 transcription through a yet unknown mechanism, and accumulated PIF4 promotes hypocotyl growth by activating key genes involved in the biosynthesis of and response to the growth hormone auxin. The PI discovered HEMERA (HMR) as a coactivator of PIF4 in activating the thermoresponsive gene expression. Although HMR is required for PIF4 activity and protein stability at warm temperatures, how these regulations are achieved remains elusive. Through forward and reverse genetic approaches and bioinformatic analyses, the PI’s group has identified multiple factors that may regulate PIF4 expression, activity, and protein stability upon temperature elevations. The proposed research will uncover PIF4-mediated thermomorphogenetic mechanisms and transcriptional regulatory networks formed by PIF4 and other TTF families. The integrated educational plan will improve STEM preparedness at the University of Mississippi and across the state of Mississippi and includes efforts to 1) enhance undergraduate and graduate education in plant molecular genetics and physiology at UM; 2) develop a plant phenomics and molecular genetics summer research program for underrepresented minority students at UM and HBCUs; 3) develop a plant molecular biology summer research program for high school and community college students with disadvantaged backgrounds.

Dr. Tammy Goulet researches symbiosis and host-symbiont genotypic combinations, marine ecology, coral reefs, and coral-algal physiology.

Dr. Tammy Goulet coauthored the manuscript that will be published in the peer-reviewed journal PeerJ.  Below is the abstract and the international team of co-authors.

Abstract

 

Within microeukaryotes, genetic variation and functional variation sometimes accumulate more quickly than morphological differences. To understand the evolutionary history and ecology of such lineages, it is key to examine diversity at multiple levels of organization. In the dinoflagellate family Symbiodiniaceae, which can form endosymbioses with cnidarians (e.g., corals, octocorals, sea anemones, jellyfish), other marine invertebrates (e.g., sponges, molluscs, flatworms), and protists (e.g., foraminifera), molecular data have been used extensively over the past three decades to describe phenotypes and to make evolutionary and ecological inferences. Despite advances in Symbiodiniaceae genomics, a lack of consensus among researchers with respect to interpreting genetic data has slowed progress in the field and acted as a barrier to reconciling observations. Here, we identify key challenges regarding the assessment and interpretation of Symbiodiniaceae genetic diversity across three levels: species, populations, and communities. We summarize areas of agreement and highlight techniques and approaches that are broadly accepted. In areas where debate remains, we identify unresolved issues and discuss technologies and approaches that can help to fill knowledge gaps related to genetic and phenotypic diversity. We also discuss ways to stimulate progress, in particular by fostering a more inclusive and collaborative research community. We hope that this perspective will inspire and accelerate coral reef science by serving as a resource to those designing experiments, publishing research, and applying for funding related to Symbiodiniaceae and their symbiotic partnerships.

Davies SW¹*,  Gamache MH², Howe-Kerr LI³, Kriefall NG¹, Baker AC⁴, Banaszak AT⁵, Bay LK⁶, Bellantuono AJ⁷, Bhattacharya D⁸, Chan CX⁹, Claar DC¹⁰, Coffroth MA¹¹, Cunning R¹², Davy SK¹³, del Campo J¹⁴, Díaz-Almeyda EM¹⁵, Frommlet JC¹⁶, Fuess LE¹⁷, González-Pech RA¹⁸, Goulet TL¹⁹, Hoadley KD²⁰, Howells EJ²¹, Hume BCC²², Kemp DW²³, Kenkel CD²⁴, Kitchen SA²⁵, LaJeunesse TC¹⁸, Lin S²⁶, McIlroy SE²⁷, McMinds R²⁸, Nitschke MR⁶, Oakley CA¹³, Peixoto RS²⁹, Prada C³⁰, Putnam HM³⁰, Quigley KM³¹, Reich HG³⁰, Reimer JD³², Rodriguez-Lanetty M⁷, Rosales SM³³, Saad OS³⁴, Sampayo EM³⁵, Santos SR³⁶, Shoguchi E³⁷, Smith EG³⁸, Stat M³⁹, Stephens TG⁸, Strader ME⁴⁰, Suggett DJ⁴¹, Swain TD⁴², Tran C⁴³, Traylor-Knowles N⁴, Voolstra CR²², Warner ME⁴⁴, Weis VM⁴⁵, Wright RM⁴⁶, Xiang T³⁸, Yamashita H⁴⁷, Ziegler M⁴⁸, Correa AMS³* and Parkinson JE²*

Corresponding authors(*)

¹Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

²Department of Integrative Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

³Department of BioSciences, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

⁴Department of Marine Biology and Ecology, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

⁵Unidad A Académica de Sistemas Arrecifales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Puerto Morelos, Mexico

⁶Reef Recovery, Adaptation, and Restoration, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, QLD, Australia

⁷Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

⁸Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

⁹Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

¹⁰Hakai Institute, Campbell River, Canada

¹¹Department of Geology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

¹²Daniel P. Haerther Center for Conservation and Research, John G. Shedd Aquarium, Chicago, IL, USA

¹³School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

¹⁴Biodiversity Program, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

¹⁵Department of Natural Sciences, New College of Florida, Sarasota, FL, USA

¹⁶Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

¹⁷Department of Biology, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA

¹⁸Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

¹⁹Department of Biology, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, USA

²⁰Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

²¹National Marine Science Centre, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia

²²Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

²³Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

²⁴Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

²⁵Divsion of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

²⁶Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

²⁷Swire Institute of Marine Science, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

²⁸Center for Global Health and Infectious Disease Research, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

²⁹Red Sea Research Center, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

³⁰Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA

³¹Minderoo Foundation, Perth, WA, Australia

³²MISE, Department of Biology, Chemistry and Marine Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa, Japan

³³The Cooperative Institute For Marine And Atmospheric Studies, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

³⁴Department of Biological Oceanography, Red Sea University, Port-Sudan, Sudan

³⁵School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia

³⁶Department of Biological Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

³⁷Marine Genomics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa, Japan

³⁸Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

³⁹School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia

⁴⁰Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

⁴¹Climate Change Cluster, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW, Australia

⁴²Department of Marine and Environmental Science, Nova Southeastern University, Dania Beach, FL, USA

⁴³Department of Biology, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

⁴⁴School of Marine Science and Policy, University of Delaware, Lewes, DE, USA

⁴⁵Department of Integrative Biology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

⁴⁶Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, MA, USA

⁴⁷Fisheries Technology Institute, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, Ishigaki, Okinawa, Japan

⁴⁸Department of Animal Ecology & Systematics, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany