Eva Majerová

Coral Molecular Biologist

My Research

My main focus in the lab is to find and understand the mechanisms that corals employ when they naturally acclimatize or adapt to changing climate. We see heat tolerant corals in the waters around O'ahu, but we do not understand what exactly makes them resilient and what the trade-offs of these adaptations are. However, similar knowledge is core to successful restoration efforts and practices, such as the "Restore with Resilience" project. With my team of awesome technicians, assistants and interns, we develop and apply methods of functional genetics like gene expression silencing (siRNA-mediated gene knockdown), protein level inhibition, live imaging using fluorescent dyes, etc. to understand the roles of particular genes and pathways in the acclimatization and adaptation process, and how these genes influence coral-algal symbiosis maintenance and disruption. If we can define resilience in corals, we can improve restoration protocols, speed-up the process of detection and selection of resilient corals in the ocean and possibly also enhance coral's ability to acclimatize or adapt faster and better to buy them some extra time in the face of impending extinction due to climate change.

Education and Experience

Postdocal Fellowship - University of Hawaii, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biolgoy

Postdoctoral Fellowship - Catholique University of Louvain, Bruxelles, Belgium; Laboratory of Genetic and Epigenetic Alterations of Genomes, de Duve Institute

PhD - Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic; Genomics and Proteomics,

MS - Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic; Molecular Biology and Genetics,

BS  - Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic; Biology                                                

Current Projects

  • Molecular signaling and pathways in the coral-algal symbiosis maintenance and bleaching response

  • Molecular and cellular basis of coral acclimatization and adaptation to climate change

  • Defining trade-offs to higher thermal resilience in corals

  • Search for molecular markers of differential bleaching resistance in reef-building corals in Kane‘ohe Bay, Hawai‘i

  • Impact of short and long-term ecological stress to coral cellular integrity and molecular "health"

Publications

  1. Majerova E and Drury C, Thermal preconditioning in a reef-building coral alleviates oxidative damage through a BI-1-mediated antioxidant response. Front. Mar. Sci 9:971332. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2022.971332

  2. Crawford Drury , Jenna Dilworth, Eva Majerová, Carlo Caruso, Justin B Greer. Expression plasticity regulates intraspecific variation in the acclimatization potential of a reef-building coral. Nat Commun 13, 4790 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32452-4

  3. Huffmyer, A. S., N. Bean, E. Majerová, C. I. Harris, and C. Drury, 2022, Variable intraspecific genetic diversity effects impact thermal tolerance in a reef-building coral, Coral Reefs https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-022-02320-0

  4. MAJEROVA Eva, Carey C. Fiona, Drury, C., Gates D. Ruth. Preconditioning improves bleaching tolerance in the reef-building coral Pocillopora acuta through modulations in the autophagy pathway. Resubmitted after revision, Molecular Ecology 10.22541/au.158274769.98869554

  5. Huffmyer AS, Drury C, Majerova E, Lemus J, Gates DR. Tissue fusion and enhanced genotypic diversity support the survival of juvenile Pocillopora acuta corals under thermal stress. Coral Reefs (2021). 10.1007/s00338-021-02074-1

  6. Maya Raghunandan, Dan Geelen, Eva Majerova and Anabelle Decottignies. Non-canonical functions of hTR and NHP2 regulate the Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres pathway. EMBO J, 2021 Mar 15;40(6) 10.15252/embj.2020106336

  7. Majerova Eva and Drury Crawford. BI-1 mediated cascade improves redox homeostasis during thermal stress and prevents oxidative damage in a preconditioned stony coral. Submitted, 10.1101/2021.03.15.435543v1

  8. VICECONTE Nikenza, DHEUR Marie-Sophie, MAJEROVA Eva, PIERREUX E. Christophe, BAURAIN Jean-Francois, van BAREN Nicolas and DECOTTIGNIES Anabelle. Highly aggressive metastatic melanoma cells unable to maintain telomere length. Cell Rep. 2017 Jun 20;19(12):2529-2543. DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2017.05.046

  9. Majerova E., Mandakova T., Vu, G T H, Fajkus J., Lysak M A, and Fojtova M. Chromatin features of plant telomeric sequences at terminal vs. Internal positions. Front Plant Sci. 2014 Nov 4;5:593. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2014.00593

  10. Ogrocka A, Polanska P, Majerova E, Janeba Z, Fajkus J and Fojtova M. Compromised telomere maintenance in hypomethylated Arabidopsis thaliana plants. Nucl Acid Res, 2014, 42(5):2919-31 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkt1285

  11. Majerova E, Fojtova M., Mozgova I., Bittova M., and Fajkus J. Hypomethylating drugs efficiently decrease cytosine methylation in telomeric DNA and activate telomerase without affecting telomere lengths in tobacco cells. Plant Mol Biol, Springer, 2011, 77, 4-5, DOI: 10.1007/s11103-011-9816-7

  12. Majerova E., Fojtova M., Mandakova T., and Fajkus J. Methylation of plant telomeric DNA: what do the results say? Plant Mol Biol, Springer, 2011, 77, 6 doi.org/10.1007/s11103-011-9834-5