The Bhattacharya lab studies the impacts of environmental fluctuations on the biology of aquatic species, with a focus on algae and corals. Genomic tools are used to elucidate the pathways that are used by these taxa to deal with abiotic stress such as temperature and pH changes, as well as the consequences of biotic interactions (e.g., symbionts, pathogens) on their biology and adaptability. These experimental data are being used to develop coral stress monitoring tools that will be field-tested in reefs around the world.
Publications:
Meng, Z., Williams, A., Liau, P., Stephens, T. G., Drury, C., Chiles, E. N., Su, X., Javanmard, M., Bhattacharya, D. (2022) Development of a portable toolkit to diagnose coral thermal stress. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 14398.
Gabr, A., Zournas, A., Stephens, T. G., Dismukes, G. C., & Bhattacharya, D. (2022). Evidence for a robust photosystem II in the photosynthetic amoeba Paulinella. The New Phytologist, 234(3), 934–945.
Calatrava, V., Stephens, T. G., Gabr, A., Bhaya, D., Bhattacharya, D., Grossman, A. R. (2022). Retrotransposition facilitated the establishment of a primary plastid in the thecate amoeba Paulinella. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119(23), e2121241119.
Williams, A., Chiles, E. N., Conetta, D., Pathmanathan, J. S., Cleves, P. A., Putnam, H. M., Su, X., & Bhattacharya, D. (2021). Metabolomic shifts associated with heat stress in coral holobionts. Science Advances, 7(1), eabd4210.
