Assembled catalog of immune-related genes from allogeneic challenged corals that unveils the participation of vWF-like transcript

While reef-building corals portray highly complex and specific allorecognition responses, still, no available synthesis on historecognition at the molecular level exists for this group of organisms. Here, we present the first subtractive library of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from allogeneic challenged coral (Stylophora pistillata) colonies revealing the differential expression of a wide range of immune-related genes. 1760 unique ESTs were clustered and assembled into 230 contigs and 1530 singlets with 28% that showed homology (E-value ≤ 0.005) to known database sequences, of which 16% (n = 80) homologues were identified as immune-relevant genes, encoding for stress proteins, pattern recognition receptors and complement proteins, proteases, cell adhesion proteins, cytokine related proteins, programmed cell death and proteasome-associated proteins. Transcripts that were subjected to quantitative RT-PCR, further supported the library data. In situ hybridization analyses elucidated specific and enhanced expressions of von Willebrand factor-like transcript during S. pistillata allogeneic rejection. Availability of such genome-wide expression tools may lead to significant advances in the research of coral historecognition and comparative immunology.