Exploring mechanisms that affect coral cooperation: symbiont transmission mode, cell density and community composition.

ABSTRACT: 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 ch

SUBMITTER: Kenkel CD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6282938 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature