RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Metabolomic shifts associated with heat stress in coral holobionts JF Science Advances JO Sci Adv FD American Association for the Advancement of Science SP eabd4210 DO 10.1126/sciadv.abd4210 VO 7 IS 1 A1 Williams, Amanda A1 Chiles, Eric N. A1 Conetta, Dennis A1 Pathmanathan, Jananan S. A1 Cleves, Phillip A. A1 Putnam, Hollie M. A1 Su, Xiaoyang A1 Bhattacharya, Debashish YR 2021 UL http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/1/eabd4210.abstract AB Understanding the response of the coral holobiont to environmental change is crucial to inform conservation efforts. The most pressing problem is “coral bleaching,” usually precipitated by prolonged thermal stress. We used untargeted, polar metabolite profiling to investigate the physiological response of the coral species Montipora capitata and Pocillopora acuta to heat stress. Our goal was to identify diagnostic markers present early in the bleaching response. From the untargeted UHPLC-MS data, a variety of co-regulated dipeptides were found that have the highest differential accumulation in both species. The structures of four dipeptides were determined and showed differential accumulation in symbiotic and aposymbiotic (alga-free) populations of the sea anemone Aiptasia (Exaiptasia pallida), suggesting the deep evolutionary origins of these dipeptides and their involvement in symbiosis. These and other metabolites may be used as diagnostic markers for thermal stress in wild coral.