Abstract
The sensitivity of reef-building coral to elevated temperature is a function of their symbiosis with dinoflagellate algae in the family Symbiodiniaceae. Changes in the composition of the endosymbiont community in response to thermal stress can increase coral thermal tolerance. Consequently, this mechanism is being investigated as a human-assisted intervention for rapid acclimation of coral in the face of climate change. Successful establishment of novel symbioses that increase coral thermal tolerance have been demonstrated in laboratory conditions; however, it is unclear how long these heterologous relationships persist in nature. Here, we test the persistence of a novel symbiosis between Acropora palmata and Durusdinium spp. from Mote Marine Laboratory’s ex situ nursery by outplanting clonal replicates (ramets) of five A. palmata host genotypes to natural reefs in the lower Florida Keys. Amplicon sequencing analysis of ITS2-type profiles revealed that the majority of surviving ramets remained dominated by Durusdinium spp. two years after transplantation. However, 15% of ramets, including representatives of all genotypes, exhibited some degree of symbiont shuffling or switching at six of eight sites, including complete takeover by site-specific strains of the native symbiont, Symbiodinium fitti. The predominant long-term stability of the novel symbiosis supports the potential effectiveness of symbiont modification as a management tool. Although, the finding that 6–7 year-old coral can alter symbiont community composition in the absence of bleaching indicates that Symbiodiniaceae communities are indeed capable of great flexibility under ambient conditions.
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Data availability
Sequence Access: NCBI, Accession: PRJNA868513, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7419654.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the staff of Mote Marine Laboratory for their assistance in producing and maintaining the coral genotypes used in this study. We also thank all graduate students of the Cnidarian Evolutionary Ecology Lab and Mote Marine Laboratory staff who participated in monitoring of these corals during the outplant period. The transplant of coral colonies for the purpose of coral restoration was permitted under FKNMS-2015-163 and FKNMS-2015-163-A3 to EB. Tissue sampling of transplants was permitted under FKNMS-2018-035 to CDK.
Funding
This research was supported by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coral Reef Conservation Program grant NA17NOS4820084, and private funding from the Alfred P. Sloan, and Rose Hills Foundations.
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CDK, EMM, CJK, WCM, and HE conceived the experiments and analysis. WCM, EB, CJK, and CDK conducted experiments. EMM and EB provided advice and logistical support through the experiment. HE conducted genetic and statistical analysis and wrote the manuscript. CDK and EMM provided advice and support for analysis. CDK, EMM, and CJK helped write the manuscript.
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Elder, H., Million, W.C., Bartels, E. et al. Long-term maintenance of a heterologous symbiont association in Acropora palmata on natural reefs. ISME J 17, 486–489 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-022-01349-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-022-01349-x
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