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Science 4 March 1960:
Vol. 131. no. 3401, pp. 668 - 669
DOI: 10.1126/science.131.3401.668
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Articles

Distribution of Labeled Carbon in Reef-Building Corals with and without Zooxanthellae

T. F. Goreau 1 and N. I. Goreau 1

1 Physiology Department, University College of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, and New York Zoological Society, New York

The uptake and distribution of carbon-14 in two reef-building corals, Manicina areolata and Montastrea annularis, were studied by radioautographic methods. Experiments on colonies with and without zooxanthellae were run in light and in darkness. We suggest that corals cannot derive any effective nutrition from their zooxanthellae, and that the physiological response of corals to the presence of zooxanthellae is due to the secretion of trace amounts of vitamin-like or hormone-like substances by the algal symbionts, and not to their food value per se.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Glycerol Excretion by Symbiotic Algae from Corals and Tridacna and Its Control by the Host.
L. Muscatine (1967)
Science 156, 516-519
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)