When coral overheats, each kind of cell fails in its own way
When coral gets too hot, its different cell types break down in different ways, and only some recover. Researchers read the activity inside 20,000 single coral cells over seven hot days and 45 days of recovery.
Why it matters
A coral is an animal that keeps tiny algae (simple plant-like life) living inside its own cells. The algae catch sunlight and make food for the coral. When the sea gets too warm, the coral loses these algae and turns white, which is called bleaching. This study shows which cells give up first: the cells that build the coral's stony skeleton switched off their building genes, and the cells holding algae slowly stopped feeding and trading nutrients. If that pattern holds in the wild, it could help people spot a reef in trouble before it looks damaged, or pick out corals that handle heat better. For now it is one coral species heated in a tank, so real reefs may behave differently.
Who's behind it: X. Grau-Bové, A. Sebé-Pedrós and colleagues, Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona and the University of Haifa.
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