Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 4 June 2004:
Vol. 304. no. 5676, pp. 1492 - 1494
DOI: 10.1126/science.1095733
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Flexibility in Algal Endosymbioses Shapes Growth in Reef Corals

Angela F. Little,1 Madeleine J. H. van Oppen,2 Bette L. Willis1*

The relation between corals and their algal endosymbionts has been a key to the success of scleractinian (stony) corals as modern reef-builders, but little is known about early stages in the establishment of the symbiosis. Here, we show that initial uptake of zooxanthellae by juvenile corals during natural infection is nonspecific (a potentially adaptive trait); the association is flexible and characterized by a change in (dominant) zooxanthella strains over time; and growth rates of experimentally infected coral holobionts are partly contingent on the zooxanthella strain harbored, with clade C–infected juveniles growing two to three times as fast as those infected with clade D.

1 School of Marine Biology and Aquaculture, James Cook University (JCU), Townsville 4811, Australia.
2 Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), PMB 3 MC, Townsville 4810, Australia.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Bette.Willis{at}jcu.edu.au

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Species-specific interactions between algal endosymbionts and coral hosts define their bleaching response to heat and light stress.
D. Abrego, K. E Ulstrup, B. L Willis, and M. J.H van Oppen (2008)
Proc R Soc B 275, 2273-2282
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Functional diversity in coral-dinoflagellate symbiosis.
M. Stat, E. Morris, and R. D. Gates (2008)
PNAS 105, 9256-9261
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A community change in the algal endosymbionts of a scleractinian coral following a natural bleaching event: field evidence of acclimatization.
A.M Jones, R Berkelmans, M.J.H van Oppen, J.C Mieog, and W Sinclair (2008)
Proc R Soc B 275, 1359-1365
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Alveolins, a New Family of Cortical Proteins that Define the Protist Infrakingdom Alveolata.
S. B. Gould, W.-H. Tham, A. F. Cowman, G. I. McFadden, and R. F. Waller (2008)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 25, 1219-1230
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The effect of thermal history on the susceptibility of reef-building corals to thermal stress.
R. Middlebrook, O. Hoegh-Guldberg, and W. Leggat (2008)
J. Exp. Biol. 211, 1050-1056
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
From the Cover: Model-based assessment of the role of human-induced climate change in the 2005 Caribbean coral bleaching event.
S. D. Donner, T. R. Knutson, and M. Oppenheimer (2007)
PNAS 104, 5483-5488
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Coral reef bleaching and global climate change: Can corals survive the next century?.
M. P. Lesser (2007)
PNAS 104, 5259-5260
   Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)