Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 116, Issue 6, Pages 2118-2123Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1812257116
Keywords
phototaxis; GFP; symbiosis; fluorescence; coral
Categories
Funding
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) [18K19240, 16K14814, 16H06552]
- NIBB Collaborative Research Program [15-362, 16-334, 17-310]
- Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation's Marine Microbiology Initiative [4985]
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [16K14814, 18K19240] Funding Source: KAKEN
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Reef-building corals thrive in nutrient-poor marine environments because of an obligate symbiosis with photosynthetic dinoflagel-lates of the genus Symbiodinium. Symbiosis is established in most corals through the uptake of Symbiodinium from the environment. Corals are sessile for most of their life history, whereas free-living Symbiodinium are motile; hence, a mechanism to attract Symbiodinium would greatly increase the probability of encounter between host and symbiont. Here, we examined whether corals can attract free-living motile Symbiodinium by their green fluorescence, emitted by the excitation of endogenous GFP by purple-blue light. We found that Symbiodinium have positive and negative phototaxis toward weak green and strong purpleblue light, respectively. Under light conditions that cause corals to emit green fluorescence, (e.g., strong blue light), Symbiodinium were attracted toward live coral fragments. Symbiodinium were also attracted toward an artificial green fluorescence dye with similar excitation and emission spectra to coral-GFP. In the field, more Symbiodinium were found in traps painted with a green fluorescence dye than in controls. Our results revealed a biological signaling mechanism between the coral host and its potential symbionts.
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