Coral-dinoflagellate symbiosis underpins coral reef resilience and influences conservation success, given the relationship's role in coral bleaching. Here, we transplanted Guam's dominant staghorn coral, Acropora pulchra, across four coral gardens and monitored their endosymbiotic dinoflagellates (family Symbiodiniaceae) for ∼15 months (May 2021–August 2022). Transplantation and predation resulted in temporary symbiotic destabilization, as signaled by increased cell roughness and decreased cell density. Eventually, the Symbiodiniaceae phenotypic profile mostly converged with the wild population, although cell density and red fluorescing photopigments remained modified. In March, corals paled, which allowed us to evaluate the Symbiodiniaceae assemblage's relationship with host color. Interestingly, cell density was not the most informative when predicting host color. Instead, fluorescence from antioxidant-associated pigments were most informative. We conclude that Symbiodiniaceae phenotypic traits respond differently depending on the condition, supporting their development as acclimatization bioindicators.

中文翻译：

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共生菌科表型性状作为珊瑚移植后驯化的生物指标


鉴于珊瑚-甲藻共生关系在珊瑚白化中的作用，珊瑚-甲藻共生关系支撑着珊瑚礁的复原力并影响保护成功。在这里，我们将关岛的主要鹿角珊瑚 Acropora pulchra 移植到四个珊瑚花园中，并监测了它们的内共生甲藻（共生甲科）约 15 个月（2021 年 5 月至 2022 年 8 月）。移植和捕食导致暂时的共生不稳定，表现为细胞粗糙度增加和细胞密度降低。最终，Symbiodiniaceae 表型谱主要与野生种群收敛，尽管细胞密度和红色荧光光色素仍然被修饰。3 月，珊瑚苍白，这使我们能够评估 Symbiodiniaceae 组合与寄主颜色的关系。有趣的是，在预测宿主颜色时，细胞密度并不是信息量最大的。相反，来自抗氧化相关色素的荧光信息量最大。我们得出结论，Symbiodiniaceae 表型性状根据条件做出不同的反应，支持它们作为驯化生物指标的发展。