AUTHOR=Martinez Stephane , Grover Renaud , Ferrier-Pagès Christine TITLE=Symbiont starvation affects the stability of the coral–Symbiodiniaceae symbiosis JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science VOLUME=9 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.979563 DOI=10.3389/fmars.2022.979563 ISSN=2296-7745 ABSTRACT=
Coral bleaching, the breakdown of the coral-Symbiodiniaceae association has been identified as a major cause of coral reef decline worldwide. When symbiont functions are compromised, corals receive fewer photosynthetic products from their symbionts and suffer significant starvation along with changes in nutrient cycling. Not all coral species are equally susceptible to bleaching, but despite intensive research, our understanding of the causes for coral bleaching remains incomplete. Here, we investigated nutrient exchange between host and symbionts of two coral- Symbiodiniaceae associations that are differentially susceptible to bleaching when maintained under heterotrophy in the dark. We followed the fate of heterotrophic nutrients using bulk isotope and compound-specific (amino acid) isotope analyses. We showed that symbiont starvation is a major cause of symbiotic breakdown in the dark. While