Dataset Information

Does coral disease affect symbiodinium? Investigating the impacts of growth anomaly on symbiont photophysiology.

ABSTRACT: Growth anomaly (GA) is a commonly observed coral disease that impairs biological functions of the affected tissue. GA is prevalent at Wai '?pae tide pools, southeast Hawai 'i Island. Here two distinct forms of this disease, Type A and Type B, affect the coral, Montiporacapitata. While the effects of GA on biology and ecology of the coral host are beginning to be understood, the impact of this disease on the photophysiology of the dinoflagellate symbiont, Symbiodinium spp., has not been investigated. The GA clearly alters coral tissue structure and skeletal morphology and density. These tissue and skeletal changes are likely to modify not only the light micro-environment of the coral tissue, which has a direct impact on the photosynthetic potential of Symbiodinium spp., but also the physiological interactions within the symbiosis. This study utilized Pulse amplitude modulation fluorometry (PAM) to characterize the photophysiology of healthy and GA-affected M. capitata tissue. Overall, endosymbionts within GA-affected tissue exhibit reduced photochemical efficiency. Values of both Fv/Fm and ?F/ Fm' were significantly lower (p<0.01) in GA tissue compared to healthy and unaffected tissues. Tracking the photophysiology of symbionts over a diurnal time period enabled a comparison of symbiont responses to photosynthetically available radiation (PAR) among tissue conditions. Symbionts within GA tissue exhibited the lowest values of ?F/Fm' as well as the highest pressure over photosystem II (p<0.01). This study provides evidence that the symbionts within GA-affected tissue are photochemically compromised compared to those residing in healthy tissue.

SUBMITTER: Burns JH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3743788 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Does coral disease affect symbiodinium? Investigating the impacts of growth anomaly on symbiont photophysiology.

Burns John Henrik Robert JH Gregg Toni Makani TM Takabayashi Misaki M

PloS one 20130814 8

Growth anomaly (GA) is a commonly observed coral disease that impairs biological functions of the affected tissue. GA is prevalent at Wai 'ōpae tide pools, southeast Hawai 'i Island. Here two distinct forms of this disease, Type A and Type B, affect the coral, Montiporacapitata. While the effects of GA on biology and ecology of the coral host are beginning to be understood, the impact of this disease on the photophysiology of the dinoflagellate symbiont, Symbiodinium spp., has not been investiga ...[more]

PMID: 23967301

Similar Datasets

Project description:The coral symbiosis is the linchpin of the reef ecosystem, yet the mechanisms that promote and maintain cooperation between hosts and symbionts have not been fully resolved. We used a phylogenetically controlled design to investigate the role of vertical symbiont transmission, an evolutionary mechanism in which symbionts are inherited directly from parents, predicted to enhance cooperation and holobiont fitness. Six species of coral, three vertical transmitters and their closest horizontally transmitting relatives, which exhibit environmental acquisition of symbionts, were fragmented and subjected to a 2-week thermal stress experiment. Symbiont cell density, photosynthetic function and translocation of photosynthetically fixed carbon between symbionts and hosts were quantified to assess changes in physiological performance and cooperation. All species exhibited similar decreases in symbiont cell density and net photosynthesis in response to elevated temperature, consistent with the onset of bleaching. Yet baseline cooperation, or translocation of photosynthate, in ambient conditions and the reduction in cooperation in response to elevated temperature differed among species. Although Porites lobata and Galaxea acrhelia did exhibit the highest levels of baseline cooperation, we did not observe universally higher levels of cooperation in vertically transmitting species. Post hoc sequencing of the Symbiodinium ITS-2 locus was used to investigate the potential role of differences in symbiont community composition. Interestingly, reductions in cooperation at the onset of bleaching tended to be associated with increased symbiont community diversity among coral species. The theoretical benefits of evolving vertical transmission are based on the underlying assumption that the host-symbiont relationship becomes genetically uniform, thereby reducing competition among symbionts. Taken together, our results suggest that it may not be vertical transmission per se that influences host-symbiont cooperation, but genetic uniformity of the symbiont community, although additional work is needed to test this hypothesis.

Dataset Information

Does coral disease affect symbiodinium? Investigating the impacts of growth anomaly on symbiont photophysiology.

Publications

Does coral disease affect symbiodinium? Investigating the impacts of growth anomaly on symbiont photophysiology.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets