FEATURED RESEARCH
iBiology Young Scientist Seminar Series
Dr. Bucher describes her doctoral research on the coral microbiome of diseased and healthy corals in the Florida Keys.
PREVIOUS RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
National Science Foundation Award:
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology
Dr. DiLorenzo (previously Bucher) integrated mentorship, leadership, and research as a post-doctoral researcher in the Castillo Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. One of her responsibilities was to maintain an inventory of collected samples and care for living coral specimens. As the senior member of the lab, she edited and implemented changes to laboratory protocols (including the species and diversity of organisms being studied) and supervised 3 graduate students, 6 undergraduates, and 1 high-schooler in their research projects. Practicing leadership, Maitê was responsible for scheduling and leading Castillo Lab meetings, creating and maintaining a lab calendar (to facilitate research in three separate laboratories, adhering to COVID-19 department protocols), and transitioning the lab to a virtual platform in leu of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity Committee, Maitê also assisted in promoting the participation of groups underrepresented in biology.
Corals live in symbiosis with bacteria that contribute greatly to coral survival, and these partners can often shift in response to changes in the environment. During her time as a post-doc, Maitê set the foundations to understand heat tolerance in corals through an integrative study on the combined effects of coral physiology and its microbial partners. By studying corals already living in extreme environments, researchers can gain insight into how corals (and coral-associated bacteria) that are tolerant to ocean warming might survive into the future when the global climate will become more extreme.
National Science Foundation:
Graduate Research Fellowship Program
Globally, stony corals and their associated microbiome along with surrounding reef water microbiomes contribute greatly to the health of coral reefs. From disease to dust, Dr. DiLorenzo’s (previously Bucher) doctoral dissertation (Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences) in the Lipp Lab elucidated the influence of biotic and abiotic stressors on the microbiomes associated with stony corals and reef water in the Florida Keys, FL, USA.
a multi-species, multi-disease outbreak REvealed different but complementary responses of coral microbiomes
Spatial and temporal variability (within and between studies) hinders the ability to identify overarching patterns in coral disease dynamics. In August 2017, Maitê captured a multi-species, multi-disease outbreak of coral disease. While unfortunate, this unique opportunity permitted that two coral disease hypotheses be tested with minimal, potentially confounding, spatiotemporal variability. By studying microbial communities at the fine-scale (i.e., specific bacterial taxa) and at the grand-scale (i.e., whole bacterial communities), Maitê reconciled two seemingly competing frameworks describing coral disease and revealed the commonalities and differences between the bacterial communities of multiple coral species affected by multiple disease types.
episodic trans-Atlantic Saharan Dust impact Healthy Coral Microbiomes
Biotic and abiotic environmental stressors compromise the efficacy of host-microbe relationships. Natural events may become tipping points between stable and unstable states of the coral and its associated symbionts. During a 26 d time series, Maitê described the influence of natural, episodic trans-Atlantic Saharan dust deposition on the bacterial communities and Vibrio abundances associated with healthy Acropora palmata and Orbicella faveolata corals. Her research results showed that dust deposition temporarily increased the abundance of Vibrio bacteria in corals. Notably, Vibrio are potentially pathogenic and frequently associated with coral disease. Dust deposition also contributed to short-term changes in the whole microbial communities of threatened A. palmata and O. faveolata corals.
SAHARAN DUST affects bacterial GENE EXPRESSION OF reef WATER microbiomes IN LOOE KEY REEf, FL, US
The utilization of metagenomics tools enhances our understanding of the functional roles of marine microbial communities. During the same 26 d time series, Maitê showed changes in the gene expression of bacteria living in the surface reef waters in response to changes in environmental factors associated with Saharan dust deposition (i.e., iron concentration, carbon concentration, total dust influx). Studying microbial transcription patterns revealed that dust aerosol optical thickness, dissolved iron, and dissolved organic carbon from episodic Saharan dust deposition events alter microbial gene expression.
Image Source: TFH Magazine
North Carolina School of Science and Math:
High School Research Experience in Molecular Biology
Microbial community composition of the sea anemone Exaiptasia pallida under elevated temperature
Exaiptasia has been the subject of coral-dinoflagellate studies for over 30 years due to its rapid growth and ease of manipulation, making it an adequate model for rigorous experimental investigation. However, research on the bacterial community associated with Exaiptasia is in its infancy, and the success of Exaiptasia as a model system depends on in-depth knowledge across all of its component parts (i.e., dinoflagellate and bacterial symbionts). During a Molecular Biology module, Maitê taught six molecular biology classes and supervised a 14 day experiment. Juniors and seniors at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics exposed Exaiptasia anemones to two temperature regimes reflective of future environmental stress predictions. The results of this project showed that the beta-diversity of Exaiptasia bacterial communities were different between control temperatures (72 degrees Fahrenheit) and predicted future extreme temperatures (approximately 88 degrees Fahrenheit). Results also showed that 42 different types of bacteria were present in all anemones (identified as the Exaiptasia core microbiome), regardless of temperature differences.