Plasticity in gene expression and fatty acid profiles of Acropora tenuis reciprocally transplanted between two water quality regimes in the central Great Barrier Reef, Australia

To investigate plasticity in biochemical and physiological health attributes of corals, identical colony fragments of the coral Acropora tenuis, from two inshore populations, were exposed to native and novel environmental regimes. Variation in global gene expression (GE) and lipid and fatty acid (FA) composition of surviving colony fragments were quantified after four months. Major FA classes, with the exception of short-chain (C18)...