Apoptosis and autophagy as mechanisms of dinoflagellate symbiont release during cnidarian bleaching: every which way you lose.

ABSTRACT: Cnidarian bleaching results from the breakdown in the symbiosis between the host cnidarian and its dinoflagellate symbiont. Coral bleaching in recent years has increasingly caused degradation and mortality of coral reefs on a global scale. Although much is understood about the environmental causes of bleaching, the underlying cellular mechanisms of symbiont release that drive the process are just beginning to be described. In this study, we investigated the roles of two cellular pathways, host cell apoptosis and autophagy, in the bleaching process of the symbiotic anemone Aiptasia pallida. Host cell apoptosis was experimentally manipulated using gene knockdown of an anemone caspase by RNA interference, chemical inhibition of caspase using ZVAD-fmk and an apoptosis-inducer wortmannin. Autop

SUBMITTER: Dunn SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2293937 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature