Characterizing the role of color in heat stress resistance in the Scleractinian coral Acropora surculosa

Anthropogenic impacts have increased ocean temperatures, causing large scale bleaching events across coral reefs on a global scale. Emerging studies suggest that coral color plays a role in bleaching resilience, however the molecular patterns behind coral color and response to heat stress have not yet been characterized. In this study, we examine the relationship between thermal stress and color phenotypes in Acropora surculosa in controlled experiments at the transcriptomic level. We sequenced 36 transcriptomes of A. surculosa to explore gene expression patterns of red and brown color phenotypes during two sequential, acute heat stress assays.