Stephanie Rosales

Research Highlights

July 20, 2021

Scientists at AOML Present Coral Research at the First Virtual International Coral Reef Symposium

June 3, 2020

Two Bacteria Types Linked With Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease Hint At How This Deadly Disease Might Spread

October 7, 2019

Location, Location, Location: How Habitat and Microbiomes May Contribute to Coral Outplant Success

Research Interests

To understand microbial dynamics and the microbial contribution to unhealthy marine systems.

Stephanie Rosales, Ph.D.

Assistant Scientist (University of Miami/CIMAS), Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division

305.361.4511

Stephanie.Rosales@noaa.gov

4301 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, Florida 33149

“It’s important for us to consider how temperature, water quality, and ocean circulation can impact the overall health and biology of coral colonies.”

About

Dr. Stephanie Rosales is an assistant scientist at the University of Miami’s (UM) Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) and is stationed at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML). Dr. Rosales is interested in characterizing and understanding microorganisms that may be detrimental or beneficial to marine organisms by utilizing next-generation sequencing and bioinformatic analysis. Rosales received her B.S. in marine biology at Florida International University and was an NSF GRFP fellow at Oregon State University where she received her Ph.D. in microbiology.

Current Work & CV

Current Work

Assistant Scientist, Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division

Download Full CV

Education

2007, A.A. Biology, Miami-Dade College, Miami, FL
Honors: Phi Theta Kappa honor society

2010, B.S. Marine Biology, Florida International University, Miami, FL
Honors: Summa Cum Laude

2016, Ph.D. Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR Honors: National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

Publications

Heinz, J.M., J. Lu, L.K. Huebner, S.L. Salzberg, M. Sommer, and S.M. Rosales. Novel metagenomics analysis of stony coral tissue loss disease. G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics, jkae137, https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkae137 2024
Ref. 4430
Rosales, S.M., B.D. Young, A.J. Bright, E. Montes, J.-Z. Zhang, N. Traylor-Knowles, and D.E. Williams. Reef site and habitat influence effectiveness of Acropora palmata restoration and its microbiome in the Florida Keys. Communications Earth and Environment, 5:689, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01816-7 2024
Ref. 4464
Serrano, X.M., S.M. Rosales, M.W. Miller, A.M. Palacio-Castro, O.M. Williamson, A. Gomez, and A.C. Baker. Sediment source and dose influence the larval performance of the threatened coral Orbicella faveolata. PLoS ONE, 19(6):e0292474, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0292474 2024
Ref. 4426

View all Related Publications

Heinz, J.M., J. Lu, L.K. Huebner, S.L. Salzberg, M. Sommer, and S.M. Rosales. Novel metagenomics analysis of stony coral tissue loss disease. G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics, jkae137, https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkae137 2024
Ref. 4430
Rosales, S.M., B.D. Young, A.J. Bright, E. Montes, J.-Z. Zhang, N. Traylor-Knowles, and D.E. Williams. Reef site and habitat influence effectiveness of Acropora palmata restoration and its microbiome in the Florida Keys. Communications Earth and Environment, 5:689, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01816-7 2024
Ref. 4464
Serrano, X.M., S.M. Rosales, M.W. Miller, A.M. Palacio-Castro, O.M. Williamson, A. Gomez, and A.C. Baker. Sediment source and dose influence the larval performance of the threatened coral Orbicella faveolata. PLoS ONE, 19(6):e0292474, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0292474 2024
Ref. 4426
Young, B.D., D.E. Williams, A.J. Bright, A. Peterson, N. Traylor-Knowles, and S.M. Rosales. Genet identity and season drive gene expression in outplanted Acropora palmata at different reef sites. Scientific Reports, 14:29444, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-80479-y 2024
Ref. 4473
Young, B.D., O.M. Williamson, N.S. Kron, N. Andrade Rodriguez, L.M. Isma, N.J. Macknight, E.M. Muller, S.M. Rosales, S.M. Sirotzke, N. Traylor-Knowles, S.D. Williams, and M.S. Studivan. Annotated genome and transcriptome of the endangered Caribbean mountainous star coral (Orbicella faveolata) using PacBio long-read sequencing. BMC Genomics, 25:226, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-024-10092-w 2024
Ref. 4391
Davies, S.W., M.H. Gamache, L.I. Howe-Kerr, N.G. Kriefall, A.C. Baker, A.T. Banaszak, L.K. Bay, A.J. Bellantuono, D. Bhattacharya, C.X. Chan, D.C. Claar, M.A. Coffroth, R. Cunning, S.K. Davy, J. del Campo, E.M. Díaz-Almeyda, J.C. Frommlet, L.E. Fuess, R.A. González-Pech, T.L. Goulet, K.D. Hoadley, E.J. Howells, B.C.C. Hume, D.W. Kemp, C.D. Kenkel, S.A. Kitchen, T.C. LaJeunesse, S. Lin, S.E. McIlroy, R. McMinds, M.R. Nitschke, C.A. Oakley, R.S. Peixoto, C. Prada, H.M. Putnam, K. Quigley, H.G. Reich, J.D. Reimer, M. Rodriguez-Lanetty, S.M. Rosales, O.S. Saad, E.M. Sampayo, S.R. Santos, E. Shoguchi, E.G. Smith, M. Stat, T.G. Stephens, M.E. Strader, D.J. Suggett, T.D. Swain, C. Tran, N. Traylor-Knowles, C.R. Voolstra, M.E. Warner, V.M. Weis, R.M. Wright, T. Xiang, H. Yamashita, M. Ziegler, A.M.S. Correa, and J.E. Parkinson. Building consensus around the assessment and interpretation of Symbiodiniaceae diversity. PeerJ, 11:e15023, https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15023 2023
Ref. 4260
Robertson, E.P., D.P. Walsh, J. Martin, T.M. Work, C.A. Kellogg, J.S. Evans, V. Barker, A. Hawthorn, G. Aeby, V.J. Paul, B.K. Walker, Y. Kiryu, C.M. Woodley, J.L. Meyer, S.M. Rosales, M.S. Studivan, J.F. Moore, M.E. Brandt, and A. Bruckner. Rapid prototyping for quantifying belief weights of competing hypotheses about emergent diseases. Journal of Environmental Management, 337:117668, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117668 2023
Ref. 4245
Rosales, S.M., L.K. Huebner, J.S. Evans, A. Apprill, A.C. Baker, C.C. Becker, A.J. Bellantuono, M.E. Brandt, A.S. Clark, J. del Campo, C.E. Dennison, K.R. Eaton, N.E. Huntley, C.A. Kellogg, M. Medina, J.L. Meyer, E.M. Muller, M. Rodriguez-Lanetty, J.L. Salerno, W.B. Schill, E.N. Shilling, J.M. Stewart, and J.D. Voss. Meta-analysis of the stony coral tissue loss disease microbiome finds key bacteria in unaffected and lesion tissue in diseased colonies. ISME Communications, 3:19, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43705-023-00220-0 2023
Ref. 4235
Young, B.D., S.M. Rosales, I.C. Enochs, G. Kolodziej, N. Formel, A. Moura, G.L. D’Alonso, and N. Traylor-Knowles. Different disease inoculations cause common responses of the host immune system and prokaryotic component of the microbiome in Acropora palmata. PLoS One, 18(5):e0286293, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286293 2023
Ref. 4278
Palacio-Castro, A.M., S.M. Rosales, C.E. Dennison, and A.C. Baker. Microbiome signatures in Acropora cervicornis are associated with genotypic resilience to elevated nutrients and heat stress. Coral Reefs, 41(5):1389-1403, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-022-02289-w 2022
Ref. 4127
Rosales, S.M., L.K. Huebner, A.S. Clark, R. McMinds, R.R. Ruzicka, and E.M. Muller. Bacterial metabolic potential and micro-eukaryotes enriched in stony coral tissue loss disease lesions. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8:776859, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.776859 2022
Ref. 4053
Bonacolta, A.M., M.T. Connelly, S.M. Rosales, J. del Campo, and N. Traylor-Knowles. The starlet sea anemone, Nematosella vectensis, possesses body-region specific bacterial associations with spirochetes dominating the capitulum. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 368(3):fnab002, https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnab002 2021
Ref. 3932
Clark, A.S., S.D. Williams, K. Maxwell, S.M. Rosales, L.K. Huebner, J.H. Landsberg, J.H. Hunt, and E.M. Muller. Characterization of the microbiome of corals with stony coral tissue loss disease along Florida’s reef coast. Microorganisms, 9(11):2181, https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9112181 2021
Ref. 4035
Palacio-Castro, A.M., C.E. Dennison, S.M. Rosales, and A.C. Baker. Variation in susceptibility among three Caribbean coral species and their algal symbionts indicate the threatened staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, is particularly susceptible to elevated nutrients and heat stress. Coral Reefs, 40(5):1601-1613, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-021-02159-x 2021
Ref. 4036
Messyasz, A., S.M. Rosales, R.S. Mueller, T. Sawyer, A.M.S. Correa, A.R. Thurber, and R. Vega. Coral bleaching phenotypes associated with differential abundances of nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7:555474, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.555474 2020
Ref. 3884
Rosales S.M., A.S. Clark, L.K. Huebner, R.R. Ruzicka, and E.M. Muller. Rhodobacterales and hizobiales are associated with stony coral tissue loss disease and its suspected sources of transmission. Frontiers in Microbiology, 11:681, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.00681 2020
Ref. 3791
Young, B.D., X.M. Serrano, S.M. Rosales, M.W. Miller, D. Williams, and N. Traylor-Knowles. Innate immune gene expression in Acropora palmata is consistent despite variance in yearly disease events. PLoS ONE, 15(10):e0228514, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228514 2020
Ref. 3892
Klinges, J.G., S.M. Rosales, R. McMinds, E.C. Shaver, A.A. Shantz, E.C. Peters, M. Eitel, G. Worheide, K.H. Sharp, D.E. Burkepile, B.R. Silliman, and R.L. Vega Thurber. Phylogenetic, genomic, and biogeographic characterization of a novel and ubiquitous marine invertebrate-associated Rickettsiales parasite, Candidatus Aquarickettsia rohweri, gen. nov., sp. nov. The ISME Journal, 13(12):2938-2953, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-019-0482-0 2019
Ref. 3705
Rosales, S.M., C. Sinigalliano, M. Gidley, P.R. Jones, and L.J. Gramer. Oceanographic habitat and the coral microbiomes of urban-impacted reefs. PeerJ, 7:e7552, https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7552 2019
Ref. 3727
Rosales, S.M., M.W. Miller, D.E. Williams, N. Traylor-Knowles, B. Young, and X.M. Serrano. Microbiome differences in disease-resistant vs. susceptible Acropora corals subjected to disease challenge assays. Scientific Reports, 9:18279, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54855-y 2019
Ref. 3755
Sinigalliano, C.D., I.C. Enochs, S.J. Stamates, P.R. Jones, C.M. Featherstone, M.L. Gidley, S.M. Rosales, L.J. Gramer, C. Staley, and T.P. Carsey. Water quality and coral reef monitoring along the southeast Florida coast. NOAA Technical Report, OAR-AOML-47, https://doi.org/10.25923/aanj-0912 2019
Ref. 3734

Awards

NOAA Employee/Team Member of the Week Award, May 13, 2020: COVID-19 Response

For efforts to increase the University of Miami Health System’s ability to conduct COVID-19 testing through the loan of AOML’s KingFisher instrument. Dr. Rosales’ and LTJG Thompson’s extraordinary creativity and hard work directly led to increased COVID-19 testing capacity in Miami, Florida.