Cory J Krediet

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Assistant) at Eckerd College

Coral growth depends on the partnership between the animal hosts and their intracellular, photosynthetic dinoflagellate symbionts. In this study, we used the sea anemone Aiptasia, a laboratory model for coral biology, to investigate the poorly understood mechanisms that mediate symbiosis establishment and maintenance. We found that initial coloniza...

Symbiotic cnidarians such as corals and anemones form highly productive and biodiverse coral reef ecosystems in nutrient-poor ocean environments, a phenomenon known as Darwin's paradox. Resolving this paradox requires elucidating the molecular bases of efficient nutrient distribution and recycling in the cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis. Using th...

The sensitivity of reef-building coral to elevated temperature is a function of their symbiosis with dinoflagellate algae in the family Symbiodiniaceae. Changes in the composition of the endosymbiont community in response to thermal stress can increase coral thermal tolerance. Consequently, this mechanism is being investigated as a human-assisted i...

Genotype-by-environment interactions (GxE) indicate that variation in organismal traits cannot be explained by fixed effects of genetics or site-specific plastic responses alone. For tropical coral reefs experiencing dramatic environmental change, identifying the contributions of genotype, environment, and GxE on coral performance will be vital for...

Microbiome studies across taxa have established the influence of host genotype on microbial recruitment and maintenance. However, research exploring host-specific epibionts in scleractinian corals is scant, and the influence of intraspecific differences across environments remains unclear. Here, we studied ten Acropora cervicornis genotypes to inve...

Genotype-by-environment interactions (GxE) indicate that variation in organismal traits cannot be explained by fixed effects of genetics or site-specific plastic responses alone. For tropical coral reefs experiencing dramatic environmental change, identifying the contributions of genotype, environment, and GxE on coral performance will be vital for...

Significance Coral reefs are biodiversity hotspots of great ecological, economic, and aesthetic importance. Their global decline under climate change and other stresses makes it urgent to understand the molecular bases of their responses to stress, including “bleaching,” in which the corals' photosynthetic algal symbionts are lost, thus depriving t...

Interactions between the dinoflagellate endosymbiont Symbiodinium and its cnidarian hosts (e.g., corals, sea anemones) are the foundation of coral-reef ecosystems. Carbon flow between the partners is a hallmark of this mutualism, but the mechanisms governing this flow and its impact on symbiosis remain poorly understood. We showed previously that a...

Microbial communities associated with coral surfaces are diverse and complex. They play key roles in nutrient acquisition by coral holobionts and in responses to stressors and diseases. Members of coral-associated microbiota produce antimicrobial compounds, inhibit cell-to-cell signaling, and disrupt virulence in opportunistic pathogens. Characteri...

In studies of both the establishment and breakdown of cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis, it is often necessary to determine the number of Symbiodinium cells relative to the quantity of host tissue. Ideally, the methods used should be rapid, precise, and accurate. In this study, we systematically evaluated methods for sample preparation and storage...

The bacterium Vibrio coralliilyticus has been implicated as the causative agent of coral tissue loss diseases (collectively known as white syndromes) at sites across the Indo-Pacific and represents an emerging model pathogen for understanding the mechanisms linking bacterial infection and coral disease. In this study, we used a mini-Tn7 transposon...

Sensitive, rapid and specific methods for monitoring development and turnover are extremely important for a comprehensive understanding of biofilms. The first part of this chapter describes methods of Multimodal Laser Scanning Microscopy (ML-SM) for in situ identification of biofilm components and monitoring of biofilm development, pattern of gene...

Symbiodinium cell counts within Aiptasia exposed to bacteria. Individual Aiptasia strain CC7 anemones were infected with either an α-proteobacterium 45A11 recovered from Symbiodinium Clade D2 (A) or the coral pathogen V. coralliilyticus (B) at three concentrations (108, 107, 106 cfu ml−1). Anemones were sampled prior to the infection (day 0) and 1,...

DGGE analysis of A. pallida-associated microbiota following challenge with the reconstituted CYBD. Polyps infected with the reconstituted CYBD (consisting of Vibrio-like strains 1B4, 3B7, 1H5, and 2H12, previously isolated from the CYBD-affected M. faveolata) and un-infected polyps were rinsed in sterile artificial seawater, and DNA was extracted u...

Incidents of coral disease are on the rise. However, in the absence of a surrogate animal host, understanding of the interactions between coral pathogens and their hosts remains relatively limited, compared to other pathosystems of similar global importance. A tropical sea anemone, Aiptasia pallida, has been investigated as a surrogate model to stu...

Coral reefs are under increasing stress caused by global and local environmental changes, which are thought to increase the susceptibility of corals to opportunistic pathogens. In the absence of an easily culturable model animal, the understanding of the mechanisms of disease progression in corals remains fairly limited. In the present study, we te...

Bacteria living within the surface mucus layer of corals compete for nutrients and space. A number of stresses affect the outcome of this competition. The interactions between native microorganisms and opportunistic pathogens largely determine the coral holobiont's overall health and fitness. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that commensal b...

The global decline of reef-building corals is due in part to the loss of algal symbionts, or "bleaching," during the increasingly frequent periods of high seawater temperatures [1, 2]. During bleaching, endosymbiotic dinoflagellate algae (Symbiodinium spp.) either are lost from the animal tissue or lose their photosynthetic pigments, resulting in h...

Over the last decade, significant advances have been made in characterization of the coral microbiota. Shifts in its composition often correlate with the appearance of signs of diseases and/or bleaching, thus suggesting a link between microbes, coral health and stability of reef ecosystems. The understanding of interactions in coral-associated micr...

Over the last decade, significant advances have been made in characterization of the coral microbiota. Shifts in its composition often correlate with the appearance of signs of diseases and/or bleaching, thus suggesting a link between microbes, coral health and stability of reef ecosystems. The understanding of interactions in coral-associated micr...

Over the last decade, significant advances have been made in characterization of the coral microbiota. Shifts in its composition often correlate with the appearance of signs of diseases and/or bleaching, thus suggesting a link between microbes, coral health and stability of reef ecosystems. The understanding of interactions in coral-associated micr...

The outcome of the interactions between native commensal microorganisms and opportunistic pathogens is crucial to the health of the coral holobiont. During the establishment within the coral surface mucus layer, opportunistic pathogens, including a white pox pathogen Serratia marcescens PDL100, compete with native bacteria for available nutrients....

In order to colonize and infect their eukaryotic hosts, opportunistic pathogens rely on global regulatory systems to assess the environment and to control virulence and metabolism in order to overcome host defenses and out-compete native host-associated microbiota. In γ-proteobacteria, GacS/GacA is one such regulatory system. GacA orthologs direct...

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail 2.0.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail 2.0.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail 2.0.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail 2.0.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail 2.0.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail 2.0.

Eukaryotes such as plants and the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii P. A. Dang. produce and secrete compounds that mimic N-acyl homoserine lactone (AHL) bacterial quorum-sensing (QS) signals and alter QS-regulated gene expression in the associated bacteria. Here, we show that the set of C. reinhardtii signal-mimic compounds that acti...

Interactions within microbial communities associated with marine holobionts contribute importantly to the health of these symbiotic organisms formed by invertebrates, dinoflagellates and bacteria. However, mechanisms that control invertebrate-associated microbiota are not yet fully understood. Hydrophobic compounds that were isolated from surfaces...

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail.

Sequences were screened for chimeras by the submitter using Pintail.

The GacS/GacA two-component signal transduction system regulates virulence, biofilm formation and symbiosis in Vibrio species. The present study investigated this regulatory pathway in Vibrio vulnificus, a human pathogen that causes life-threatening disease associated with the consumption of raw oysters and wound infections. Small non-coding RNAs (...

SL-305, a 5-page illustrated fact sheet by Cory J. Krediet, Kim Ritchie, and Max Teplitski, addresses some questions regarding coral reef biology, coral reef health, and the ecological and economic benefits coral reefs provide. Includes references. Published by the UF Department of Soil and Water Sciences, August 2009.

Colonization of host mucus surfaces is one of the first steps in the establishment of coral-associated microbial communities. Coral mucus contains a sulfated glycoprotein (in which oligosaccharide decorations are connected to the polypeptide backbone by a mannose residue) and molecules that result from its degradation. Mucus is utilized as a growth...

Three large brachyuran species are common in the intertidal and shallow subtidal of New England rocky shores: two native crabs Cancer borealis (Jonah crab) and Cancer irroratus (rock crab), and the introduced crab Carcinus maenas (European green crab). For these three co-occurring species in the Isles of Shoals (Gulf of Maine, USA), we compared dis...

Intertidal and shallow subtidal ecosystems experience steep environmental gradients over short distances. Individual foraging rate, predation risk, and physiologic stress vary along these gradients, resulting in growth-mortality trade-offs with depth. In the summer, Cancer borealis commonly forage in the shallow subtidal in the Gulf of Maine. C. bo...

In recent years, diseases of corals caused by opportunistic pathogens have become widespread. How opportunistic pathogens establish on coral surfaces, interact with native microbiota, and cause disease is not yet clear. This study compared the utilization of coral mucus by coral-associated commensal bacteria (“Photobacterium mandapamensis” and Halo...