Transgenerational inheritance of shuffled symbiont communities in the coral Montipora digitata.

ABSTRACT: Adult organisms may "prime" their offspring for environmental change through a number of genetic and non-genetic mechanisms, termed parental effects. Some coral species may shuffle the proportions of Symbiodiniaceae within their endosymbiotic communities, subsequently altering their thermal tolerance, but it is unclear if shuffled communities are transferred to offspring. We evaluated Symbiodiniaceae community composition in tagged colonies of Montipora digitata over two successive annual spawning seasons and the 2016 bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef. ITS2 amplicon sequencing was applied to four families (four maternal colonies and 10-12 eggs per family) previously sampled and sequenced the year before to characterize shuffling potential in these M. digitata colonies and determine

SUBMITTER: Quigley KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6746730 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature