2002/01/01 by Angela F. Little, Madeleine J. H. van Oppen, Bette L. Willis +2 · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · Health Professions · Medicine · #Child and Adolescent Health #Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies #Diabetes and associated disorders #Marine Sponges and Natural Products #Marine and coastal plant biology #Parvovirus B19 Infection Studies
paper · doi:10.1126/science.1095733
openalex publication_date 2002/01/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
The relation between corals and their algal endosymbionts has been a key to the success of scleractinian (stony) corals as modern reef-builders, but little is known about early stages in the establishment of the symbiosis. Here, we show that initial uptake of zooxanthellae by juvenile corals during natural infection is nonspecific (a potentially adaptive trait); the association is flexible and characterized by a change in (dominant) zooxanthella strains over time; and growth rates of experimentally infected coral holobionts are partly contingent on the zooxanthella strain harbored, with clade C-infected juveniles growing two to three times as fast as those infected with clade D.