Ocean Lecture Series

Detecting Coral Responses to Stress Using Microarray Technology
Sara Edge

About the Lecture

Covering less than 1% of the planet surface, coral reefs are one of the world's most valuable ecosystems in terms of ecological, economic, and cultural capital.  Coral reefs are declining at an accelerating rate.  Common stressors include elevated temperatures, changes in salinity, sedimentation, exposure to pollutants, and diseases.  Traditionally, physiological responses have been monitored to measure coral health.  These responses do not identify the causes of coral decline and, by the time they are observed, corals may be beyond the threshold of recovery.

The ability of an organism to modify the expression of specific genes is an important component of the stress response.  Changes in gene expression precede physiological responses, can identify the causative agent(s) of stress, and are used to diagnose disease.  With microarray technology, thousands of genes can be monitored at a time.  In the medical field, microarrays are used to diagnose a wide range of diseases.  In the field of ecology, microarrays have been used to identify toxicity stress in fish and crustaceans, as well as predation stress in plants.

The speaker has developed a microarray to study how coral respond to natural and anthropogenic stressors in the lab as well as in the field.  Her lecture will focus on the use of microarray technology in research projects in the Florida Keys and Bahamas to analyze genetic profiles of coral in an effort to identify the mechanisms associated with declining health, disease susceptibility, and coral loss.

About the Speaker

Dr. Sara Edge is a Research Associate in Harbor Branch's Robertson Coral Reef Program.  She has eight years of experience in coral reef ecology, focusing on molecular diagnostics to identify factors causing global coral decline.  Her research integrates experimental and field monitoring approaches with advanced molecular techniques to understand the short- and long-term effects of stress and disease on coral physiology and ecology.

Sara has completed hundreds of dives around the world, but her research focuses primarily on coral reefs in the Bahamas, Florida, Fiji, and Bermuda.  Sara developed the first stress-focused microarray used to study coral.  Along with her colleagues, she has identified several genes that are indicative of coral health.  Sara's research has been funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation through programs that emphasize interdisciplinary research.

Sara attended the University of Georgia where she completed a B.S. in journalism with a minor in psychology before changing her life focus to the study of coral.  She earned her Ph.D. at Georgia Institute of Technology in environmental biology with minors in biochemistry and chemical ecology.  She began working at Harbor Branch immediately after graduating.  She has extensive experience teaching biology and ecology courses and has mentored many students who are consequently pursuing careers in various fields of biology.