De novo metatranscriptome assembly and coral gene expression profile of Montipora capitata with growth anomaly

Purpose: There is a dearth of knowledge regarding the molecular pathology of growth anomaly in corals. We investigated the gene expression profile of Montipora capitata metatranscriptomes from healthy and diseased (growth anomaly) coral colonies to elucidate differentially expressed genes. Methods: mRNA profiles of coral tissue (including symbionts) were generated from three different tissue states: healthy, affected and unaffected. Healthy tissue was collected from coral colonies not affected by growth anomaly. Affected tissue was collected from coral growth anomaly lesions. Unaffected tissue was collected from coral colonies affected by growth anomaly. Three distinct tissue types were sampled for this study: (1) healthy tissue from healthy corals, (2) diseased tissue from coral with growth anomaly, (3) apparently healthy tissue from coral with growth anomaly.