Elizabeth Pollock1, Sara Lien Huynh2, Daniel W. Bearden3, Pamela J. Morris4, and Maria Vizcaino4. (1) Stockton College, Pomona, NJ, (2) Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, (3) National Institute of Standards and Technology, Charleston, SC, (4) Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC
The coral pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus has been implicated in bleaching events for the coral Pocillopora damicornis. As part of a larger effort to understand the temperature-dependent pathogenicity that has been observed with V. coralliilyticus, its metabolic profile was analyzed using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)-based metabolomics. V. coralliilyticus was cultured at 24�C, where it displays no toxicity, and 27�C, a temperature at which it triggers coral bleaching. Metabolites were extracted from cell cultures whose cellular processes had been quenched with liquid N2 using a 2:1 hot methanol:water solution. The spectral data was binned and analyzed using Principle Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Squares Analysis (PLS). Class separation was observed between cultures grown at different temperatures. Analysis is on-going to determine what specific metabolic changes occur and how these changes may be linked to virulence.