Gene Expression Variation Resolves Species and Individual Strains among Coral-Associated Dinoflagellates within the Genus Symbiodinium.

ABSTRACT: Reef-building corals depend on symbiotic mutualisms with photosynthetic dinoflagellates in the genus Symbiodinium. This large microalgal group comprises many highly divergent lineages ("Clades A-I") and hundreds of undescribed species. Given their ecological importance, efforts have turned to genomic approaches to characterize the functional ecology of Symbiodinium. To date, investigators have only compared gene expression between representatives from separate clades-the equivalent of contrasting genera or families in other dinoflagellate groups-making it impossible to distinguish between clade-level and species-level functional differences. Here, we examined the transcriptomes of four species within one Symbiodinium clade (Clade B) at ∼20,000 orthologous genes, as well as multiple isoclon

SUBMITTER: Parkinson JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4824173 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature