Stressed alga-free coral cells can initiate coral bleaching

Abstract

Coral bleaching is driving the rapid decline of coral reefs worldwide, yet a fundamental question remains unresolved: does the bleaching cascade begin in the coral host or in its intracellular algal symbionts, Symbiodiniaceae? Resolving where this process starts is critical for understanding how symbiosis collapses and where early intervention might be effective. Here we use transient stress to create a temporal window between the early cellular response and subsequent symbiosis breakdown. Across transient menthol and thermal stress in soft and stony corals, bleaching developed after the stress had ended. In Xenia sp., single-cell transcriptomics revealed a broad host response before detectable symbiont loss, including coordinated redox changes consistent with conditions favouring reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation. Cell-resolved imaging showed that alga-free coral cells were the first to become ROS-positive, whereas Symbiodiniaceae showed no detectable ROS signal. This early host response was transmissible. Conditioned medium from stressed cultures induced the emergence of ROS-positive host cells and subsequent symbiosis breakdown in unstressed recipients. Purified ROS-positive alga-free coral cells alone were sufficient to trigger symbiosis breakdown in recipient cultures without direct stress exposure. Suppressing the early emergence of ROS-positive coral cells markedly reduced later bleaching, whereas intervention after stress was substantially less effective. These findings identify a host-initiated, intercellularly propagating route to coral bleaching and reveal an early host response that can determine the subsequent fate of the symbiosis.

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Cite

BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{wei2026stressed,
  title = {{Stressed alga-free coral cells can initiate coral bleaching}},
  author = {J. Wei and Y. Bai and R. Wu and J. Xie and J. Zheng and M. Luo and M. Zhu and C. Li and S. Xie and K. Han and K. Xu and M. Hu},
  howpublished = {bioRxiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.64898/2026.09.30.755578},
  url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.30.755578v1},
  note = {CC BY},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Stressed alga-free coral cells can initiate coral bleaching
AU  - J. Wei
AU  - Y. Bai
AU  - R. Wu
AU  - J. Xie
AU  - J. Zheng
AU  - M. Luo
AU  - M. Zhu
AU  - C. Li
AU  - S. Xie
AU  - K. Han
AU  - K. Xu
AU  - M. Hu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/30
PB  - bioRxiv
DO  - 10.64898/2026.09.30.755578
UR  - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.30.755578v1
AB  - Coral bleaching is driving the rapid decline of coral reefs worldwide, yet a fundamental question remains unresolved: does the bleaching cascade begin in the coral host or in its intracellular algal symbionts, Symbiodiniaceae? Resolving where this process starts is critical for understanding how symbiosis collapses and where early intervention might be effective. Here we use transient stress to create a temporal window between the early cellular response and subsequent symbiosis breakdown. Across transient menthol and thermal stress in soft and stony corals, bleaching developed after the stress had ended. In Xenia sp., single-cell transcriptomics revealed a broad host response before detectable symbiont loss, including coordinated redox changes consistent with conditions favouring reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation. Cell-resolved imaging showed that alga-free coral cells were the first to become ROS-positive, whereas Symbiodiniaceae showed no detectable ROS signal. This early host response was transmissible. Conditioned medium from stressed cultures induced the emergence of ROS-positive host cells and subsequent symbiosis breakdown in unstressed recipients. Purified ROS-positive alga-free coral cells alone were sufficient to trigger symbiosis breakdown in recipient cultures without direct stress exposure. Suppressing the early emergence of ROS-positive coral cells markedly reduced later bleaching, whereas intervention after stress was substantially less effective. These findings identify a host-initiated, intercellularly propagating route to coral bleaching and reveal an early host response that can determine the subsequent fate of the symbiosis.
ER  -

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