Abstract
Intracellular pH (pHi) is likely to play a key role in maintaining the functional success of cnidarian–dinoflagellate symbiosis, yet until now the pHi of the symbiotic dinoflagellates (genus Symbiodinium) has never been quantified. Flow cytometry was used in conjunction with the ratiometric fluorescent dye BCECF to monitor changes in pHi over a daily light/dark cycle. The pHi of Symbiodinium type B1 freshly isolated from the model sea anemone Aiptasia pulchella was 7.25 ± 0.01 (mean ± SE) in the light and 7.10 ± 0.02 in the dark. A comparable effect of irradiance was seen across a variety of cultured Symbiodinium genotypes (types A1, B1, E1, E2, F1, and F5) which varied between pHi 7.21–7.39 in the light and 7.06–7.14 in the dark. Of note, there was a significant genotypic difference in pHi, irrespective of irradiance.
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Acknowledgments
This work was funded by a Commonwealth PhD Scholarship to EMG. We thank Prof. Kevin Gould for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper, Thomas Hawkins for help with confocal microscopy, Shaun Wilkinson for assistance with statistical analysis, and Thomas Krueger for the identification of Symbiodinium types.
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Gibbin, E.M., Davy, S.K. Intracellular pH of symbiotic dinoflagellates. Coral Reefs 32, 859–863 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-013-1048-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-013-1048-7