To better understand the PCD pathway signaling in PC and NPC corals, we analyzed expression profiles of pa-AMPK(adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase) and pa-NFKBI (NFkB inhibitor) in heat-stressed PC and NPC corals over time. AMPK is a major signal inducer of autophagy pathway whose activity can be triggered by ROS (Villanueva-Paz et al., 2016). Pa-AMPK was slightly upregulated at 6 hours post-stress in NPC vs PC (p=0.1190) but most importantly, we observed a gradual increase in pa-AMPK levels in NPC at late timepoints, peaking at 72 hours with almost three-fold higher mean expression than in PC corals (p = 0.0184) (Fig. 5B).