Impact of growth anomaly on gene expression in the coral Montipora capitata at Wai?opae, Hawai?i

Growth anomaly (GA) is a coral disease that has significant negative impacts on coral biology, yet our understanding of its etiology and pathology is lacking. In this study we use high-throughput mRNA sequencing along with de novo transcriptome assembly and ortholog assignment to identify coral genes that are expressed by healthy and GA-affected Montipora capitata colonies at a site on Hawai‘i island with high GA prevalence. We conducted pairwise comparisons of three distinct tissue types: healthy tissue from healthy corals, GA lesion tissue from diseased corals (“GA-affected tissue”) and apparently healthy tissue from diseased corals (“GA-unaffected tissue”).