PMID- 23717522
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20140417
LR  - 20211021
IS  - 1932-6203 (Electronic)
IS  - 1932-6203 (Linking)
VI  - 8
IP  - 5
DP  - 2013
TI  - Symbiodinium community composition in scleractinian corals is not affected by 
      life-long exposure to elevated carbon dioxide.
PG  - e63985
LID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0063985 [doi]
LID - e63985
AB  - Ocean acidification (OA) is expected to negatively affect coral reefs, however 
      little is known about how OA will change the coral-algal symbiosis on which reefs 
      ultimately depend. This study investigated whether there would be differences in 
      coral Symbiodinium types in response to OA, potentially improving coral 
      performance. We used denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of the 
      internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region of ribosomal DNA to investigate the 
      dominant types of Symbiodinium associating with six species of scleractinian 
      coral that were exposed to elevated partial pressures of carbon dioxide (pCO2) in 
      situ from settlement and throughout their lives. The study was conducted at three 
      naturally occurring volcanic CO2 seeps (pCO2  approximately 500 to 900 ppm, pHTotal 7.8 - 7.9) 
      and adjacent control areas (pCO2  approximately 390 ppm, pHTotal  approximately 8.0 - 8.05) in Papua New 
      Guinea. The Symbiodinium associated with corals living in an extreme seep site 
      (pCO2 >1000 ppm) were also examined. Ten clade C types and three clade D types 
      dominated the 443 coral samples. Symbiodinium types strongly contrasted between 
      coral species, however, no differences were observed due to CO2 exposure. Within 
      five species, 85 - 95% of samples exhibited the same Symbiodinium type across all 
      sites, with remaining rare types having no patterns attributable to CO2 exposure. 
      The sixth species of coral displayed site specific differences in Symbiodinium 
      types, unrelated to CO2 exposure. Symbiodinium types from the coral inhabiting 
      the extreme CO2 seep site were found commonly throughout the moderate seeps and 
      control areas. Our finding that symbiotic associations did not change in response 
      to CO2 exposure suggest that, within the six coral hosts, none of the 
      investigated 13 clade C and D Symbiodinium types had a selective advantage at 
      high pCO2. Acclimatisation through changing symbiotic association therefore does 
      not seem to be an option for Indo-Pacific corals to deal with future OA.
FAU - Noonan, Sam H C
AU  - Noonan SH
AD  - Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, Queensland, Australia. 
      s.noonan@aims.gov.au
FAU - Fabricius, Katharina E
AU  - Fabricius KE
FAU - Humphrey, Craig
AU  - Humphrey C
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20130522
PL  - United States
TA  - PLoS One
JT  - PloS one
JID - 101285081
RN  - 0 (DNA, Ribosomal)
RN  - 142M471B3J (Carbon Dioxide)
SB  - IM
MH  - Acclimatization/genetics/physiology
MH  - Animals
MH  - Anthozoa/genetics/metabolism/*physiology
MH  - Carbon Dioxide/adverse effects/*metabolism
MH  - Coral Reefs
MH  - DNA, Ribosomal/genetics
MH  - Oceans and Seas
MH  - Papua New Guinea
MH  - Phylogeny
MH  - Symbiosis/genetics/*physiology
PMC - PMC3661590
COIS- Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
EDAT- 2013/05/30 06:00
MHDA- 2014/04/18 06:00
PMCR- 2013/05/22
CRDT- 2013/05/30 06:00
PHST- 2012/12/03 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2013/04/12 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2013/05/30 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2013/05/30 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2014/04/18 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2013/05/22 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - PONE-D-12-37964 [pii]
AID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0063985 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - PLoS One. 2013 May 22;8(5):e63985. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0063985. Print 2013.