Corals are shown to recycle their own waste ammonium using a surprising source of glucose—a finding that reveals more about the relationship between corals and their symbiotic algae.
Corals are shown to recycle their own waste ammonium using a surprising source of glucose—a finding that reveals more about the relationship between corals and their symbiotic algae.
Symbiosis between corals and algae provides the backbone for building coral reefs, particularly in nutrient-poor waters like the Red Sea. Algae and corals cooperate to share nutrient resources, but the precise metabolic interactions at play are still unclear.
Now, KAUST researchers have shown that the coral host uses organic carbon—in glucose sourced from its symbiotic algae—to recycle its own waste ammonium. Previous research had suggested that the algae alone may be responsible for ammonium (nitrogen) recycling. The KAUST team believes that, by controlling this nitrogen recycling mechanism, the coral host can in turn control algal growth by restricting or enabling nitrogen flow.
“Molecular research on coral-algae symbiosis is relatively young. The first genetic sequencing study focusing on the coral model anemone Aiptasia was published in 2014,” says Guoxin Cui at the Red Sea Research Center, who worked on the project under the supervision of Manuel Aranda. “To explore the molecular mechanisms underlying Aiptasia’s symbiotic relationship with the algae Symbiodiniaceae, we first integrated all published RNA-sequencing data on this relationship and conducted a meta-analysis.”
Read more at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Image: The gray animal (left) is in an aposymbiotic (bleached) state, while the brown animal is the symbiotic state. CREDIT: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
