Shedding light: a phylotranscriptomic perspective illuminates the origin of photosymbiosis in marine bivalves.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Photosymbiotic associations between metazoan hosts and photosynthetic dinoflagellates are crucial to the trophic and structural integrity of many marine ecosystems, including coral reefs. Although extensive efforts have been devoted to study the short-term ecological interactions between coral hosts and their symbionts, long-term evolutionary dynamics of photosymbiosis in many marine animals are not well understood. Within Bivalvia, the second largest class of mollusks, obligate photosymbiosis is found in two marine lineages: the giant clams (subfamily Tridacninae) and the heart cockles (subfamily Fraginae), both in the family Cardiidae. Morphologically, giant clams show relatively conservative shell forms whereas photosymbiotic fragines exhibit a diverse suite of anatom

SUBMITTER: Li J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7195748 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature