Identifying Rapidly Evolving Genes in Coral Species to Better Understand Coral Bleaching

Adrita Samanta, Lenore Cowen

Abstract: With the increasing availability of genomes for many species of reef-building corals, a computational analysis of which genes have rapidly evolved due to environmental stressors becomes possible. We used a variety of genomic tools to identify and annotate the functions of some coral genes in Acropora millepora and Stylophora pistillata. Our methods identify four genes involved in adaptation toz stress among the most highly evolving.