Leela J. Chakravarti

TL;DR: The necessity for consideration of alternative (e.g., hybrid) ecosystem states is highlighted, traits of resilient corals and coral reef ecosystems are discussed, and a decision tree for incorporating assisted evolution into restoration initiatives to enhance climate resilience of coral reefs is proposed.

TL;DR: It is shown that coral stock with enhanced climate resilience can be developed through ex hospite laboratory evolution of their microalgal endosymbionts, and the more tolerant symbiosis exhibited additional higher constitutive expression of algal carbon fixation genes and coral heat tolerance genes.

TL;DR: Using a reciprocal transplant design, it is shown that the upper temperature tolerance and temperature tolerance range of Symbiodinium C1 increased after ~80 asexual generations (2.5 years) of laboratory thermal selection, and the cause behind its limited transference to the coral holobiont in this genotypes is important next steps for developing methods that aim to increase coral bleaching tolerance.

TL;DR: The long-term selected Symbiodinium culture replicates showed faster growth rates under short-term, acute heat stress, and in some cases higher photosynthetic efficiencies, compared to wild-type populations (WT).

TL;DR: The multi-generational acclimation capacity of a species to ocean warming and acidification is determined by the flexibility of its mitochondrial electron transport system, suggesting that ocean warmingand acidification act as opposing vectors of stress across multiple generations.