The endosymbiosis between most corals and their photosynthetic dinoflagellate partners begins early in the host life history, when corals are larvae or juvenile polyps. The capacity of coral larvae to buffer climate‐induced stress while in the process of symbiont acquisition could come with physiological trade‐offs that alter behaviour, development, settlement and survivorship. Here we examined the joint effects of thermal stress and symbiosis onset on colonization dynamics, survival, metamorphosis and host gene expression of
Theory suggests that the direct transmission of beneficial endosymbionts (mutualists) from parents to offspring (vertical transmission) in animal hosts is advantageous and evolutionarily stable, yet many host species instead acquire their symbionts from the environment (horizontal acquisition). An outstanding question in marine biology is why some scleractinian corals do not provision their eggs and larvae with the endosymbiotic dinoflagellates that are necessary for a juvenile's ultimate survival. We tested whether the acquisition of photosynthetic endosymbionts (family Symbiodiniaceae) during the planktonic larval stage was advantageous, as is widely assumed, in the ecologically important and threatened Caribbean reef‐building coral
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10084069
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Molecular Ecology
- Volume:
- 28
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0962-1083
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 141-155
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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