Assimilation of Photosynthetic Products of Zooxanthellae by a Reef Coral

Abstract

1. The hermatypic coral, Pocillopora damicornis was incubated in the laboratory and in its reef habitat with NaCO for 1-24 hours. Controls were incubated in darkness. C fixation in light exceeded that in darkness. 2. Fractionation of corals labeled on the reef for 24 hours revealed that 35-50% of the totalC fixed appeared in the animal tissue lipid (as C-glycerol) and protein. From a comparison with dark controls it is concluded that photosynthetic products of zooxanthellae are translocated to host coral tissue. The skeletal organic matrix also acquiresC. 3. Zooxanthehellae isolated from corals and incubated in a homogenate of host coral tissue selectively release glycerol and traces of other organic material including glucose, alanine, and glycolic acid confirming previous observations.

The acquisition of phototrophy: adaptive strategies of hosting endosymbionts and organelles

“…AcPh leads to enhanced growth efficiency (Skovgaard 1998), provides access to oxygen (Finlay et al 1996;Esteban et al 2009) or nitrogenous compounds (Uhle et al 1999;Grzymski et al 2002) in limiting environments, provides essential nutrients (Wang and Douglas 1999), and in a few cases, acts as the major nutritional source (Muscatine et al 1981;Mujer et al 1996;Johnson and Stoecker 2005 Muscatine andLenhoff 1963, 1965;Cernichiari et al 1969; c ter Kuile et al 1987, Caron et al 1995, Uhle et al 1999d Muscatine and Cernichiari 1969, Muscatine et al 1981, Titlyanov and Titlyanova 2002 A.…”

“…Chlorohydra has been the subject of numerous laboratory studies due to their tractability as a model for intracellular recognition, their ability to asexually produce clonal buds, and the ease in which they are cultured (Trench 1979;Muscatine and McNeil 1989). Chlorohydra receives 10-60% of photosynthetic products produced by Chlorella, mostly in the form of maltose (Muscatine and Lenhoff 1963;Cernichiari et al 1969). Nearly half of all photosynthate gained by Chlorohydra may enter host glycogen storages (Mews and Smith 1982).…”

“…The majority of photosynthate released back to coral hosts is in the form of glycerol and glycolic acid, however small quantities of essential amino acids and lipids are also provided (Muscatine and Cernichiari 1969;Wang and Douglas 1999). Released photosynthate is used primarily by corals for covering respiration costs and mucus production, while perhaps less than 1% is used for growth (Davies 1984) ( Fig.…”

Chemotaxis by natural populations of coral reef bacteria

“…Once placed into the vial of seawater chemotattractants diffused out of the syringe into the seawater suspension, and chemotactic bacteria within the seawater migrated into the syringe. Putative chemoattractants were selected according to their relevance as components of coral mucus (Von Holt and Von Holt, 1968;Muscatine and Cernichiari, 1969;Ducklow and Mitchell, 1979b;Meikle et al, 1988;Hill et al, 1995;Fitzgerald and Szmant, 1997;Broadbent et al, 2002;Broadbent and Jones, 2004;Wild et al, 2005Wild et al, , 2010Raina et al, 2009Raina et al, , 2010 and included a suite of amino acids, carbohydrates, dimethylsulfonipropionate and filtered seawater (FSW) (Supplementary Information).…”

Nutritional status and metabolism of the coral Stylophora subseriata along a eutrophication gradient in Spermonde Archipelago (Indonesia)

“…The host respires a large portion of photosynthates, and the acquired ATP is used inter alia for G (Al-Horani et al 2003;Allemand et al 2004) and mucus production (Brown and Bythell 2005), while the other portion provides compounds for the synthesis of cellular proteins, lipids (Muscatine and Cernichiari 1969;Dubinsky and Jokiel 1994), and mucus (Crossland 1987). The latter can account for 20-45% of the net photosynthate production (Brown and Bythell 2005).…”