symbiodinium

The life cycle of Symbiodinium was first described from cells growing in culture media.

There are several additional organelles found in the cytoplasm of Symbiodinium.

The study of Symbiodinium biology is driven largely by a desire to understand global coral reef decline.

Of the many Symbiodinium characterized genetically, most are host-specific, mutualistic, and dominate their host.

Previously thought to be a single species, molecular phylogenetic evidence over the past couple decades has shown there to be great diversity in Symbiodinium.

More often, however, there is an ecological distribution of Symbiodinium, the symbionts switching between hosts with apparent ease.

Also, large quantities of Symbiodinium cells are readily obtained through the collection of hosts that harbor them.

They maintain Symbiodinium dinoflagellates as symbionts.

Major phylogenetic disparity among Symbiodinium "clades"

Corals must therefore form a mutualistic relationship with nitrogen fixing organism, in this case the subject of this study, namely Symbiodinium.

Symbiodinium contains the symbiotic zooxanthellae.

It includes Polarella and Symbiodinium.

Given that most host larvae must initially acquire their symbionts from the environment, viable Symbiodinium cells occur outside the host.

The described species of Symbiodinium possess distinct chromosome numbers (ranging from 26-97), which remain constant throughout all phases of the nuclear cycle.

All of the corals they studied were colonized by Symbiodinium algae, a diverse genus whose various species look exactly alike, but react differently to heat.

The tissues of Lebrunia danae contain the symbiotic unicellular alga Symbiodinium.

Symbiodinium (Zooxanthella, a coral endosymbiont)

In Symbiodinium, it has been suggested that the peduncle may be involved in substrate attachment, explaining why certain cells seem to spin in place.

Corculum cardissa and some other members of the family Cardiidae live in symbiosis with dinoflagellates in the genus Symbiodinium.

It was found experimentally that different species of Symbiodinium were found at different depths in Plexaurella nutans and other corals.

Plexaurella nutans is a zooxanthellate species of coral with large numbers of symbiotic dinoflagellates from the genus Symbiodinium living in its tissues.

The large diversity of Symbiodinium revealed by genetic analyses is distributed non-randomly and appears to comprise several guilds with distinct ecological habits (Fig. 8).

While most dinoflagellates undergo mitosis as a mastigote, in Symbiodinium, mitosis occurs exclusively in the coccoid cell.

Cnidarians that are associated with Symbiodinium occur mostly in warm oligotrophic (nutrient-poor) marine environments where they are often the dominant constituents of benthic communities.

Coccoid Symbiodinium cells are metabolically active, as they photosynthesize, undergo mitosis, and actively synthesize proteins and nucleic acids.