Symbiont-Mediated Metabolic Shift in the Sea Anemone Anthopleura elegantissima.

ABSTRACT: Coral reefs and their photosynthetic algae form one of the most ecologically and economically impactful symbioses in the animal kingdom. The stability of this nutritional mutualism and this ecosystem is, however, at risk due to increasing sea surface temperatures that cause corals to expel their symbionts. Symbioses with these microeukaryotes have independently evolved multiple times, and non-coral cnidarians (e.g., sea anemones) serve as a valuable and insightful comparative system due to their ease of husbandry in the laboratory and their ability to shuffle different strains of their photosymbionts to acclimate to thermal conditions. This breadth of symbiont shuffling is exemplified by the sea anemone Anthopleura elegantissima , which naturally occurs in symbiosis with the dinoflagellate

SUBMITTER: Carrier TJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11974494 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature