Competitive traits of coral symbionts may alter the structure and function of the microbiome.

The ISME Journal
Shelby E McIlroyDavid M Baker

Abstract

In the face of global warming and unprecedented coral bleaching, a new avenue of research is focused on relatively rare algal symbionts and their ability to confer thermal tolerance to their host by association. Yet, thermal tolerance is just one of many physiological attributes inherent to the diversity of symbiodinians, a result of millions of years of competition and niche partitioning. Here, we revealed that competition among cocultured symbiodinians alters nutrient assimilation and compound production with species-specific responses. For Cladocopium goreaui, a species ubiquitous within stable coral associations, temperature stress increased sensitivity to competition eliciting a shift toward investment in cell replication, i.e., putative niche exploitation. Meanwhile, competition led Durusdinium trenchii, a thermally tolerant "background" symbiodinian, to divert resources from immediate growth to storage. As such, competition may be driving the dominance of C. goreaui outside of temperature stress, the destabilization of symbioses under thermal stress, the repopulation of coral tissues by D. trenchii following bleaching, and ultimately undermine the efficacy of symbiont turnover as an adaptive mechanism.

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Citations

Jan 28, 2021·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Nils RädeckerChristian R Voolstra
Jun 15, 2021·Frontiers in Microbiology·Yu FujiwaraJohn Everett Parkinson
Dec 10, 2021·Emerging Topics in Life Sciences·Ross Cunning

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
Flow cytometry

Software Mentioned

NanoSIMS
Flow
R Core Team
R

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