Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Molecular identification of symbiotic dinoflagellates (Symbiodinium spp.) from Palythoa spp. (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia) in Japan

  • Note
  • Published:
Coral Reefs Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In Japan, zooxanthellate Palythoa tuberculosa Klunzinger and Palythoa mutuki Verrill (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia: Zoantharia) are found over a 1,000 + km latitudinal range, often in environments where most other zooxanthellate anthozoans are not found (i.e. tidal lagoon pools, around shallow water hydrothermal vents, subtropical rocky shorelines). Sequences of internal transcribed spacer of ribosomal DNA (ITS-rDNA) of the symbiotic dinoflagellate genus Symbiodinium (zooxanthellae) Freudenthal (Order Suessiales) from P. tuberculosa and P. mutuki from several locations in Japan (34°11′N–24°16′N) were analysed. Unexpectedly, despite the ability of the genus Palythoa to be flexible in association with different Symbiodinium subclades, most (35 of 36) Palythoa investigated here specifically associate with subclade C1 and closely related types. Symbiodinium subclade C1 has been characterized as a “generalist” in terms of the ability to associate with a range of hosts, but present results suggest that subclade C1 may also be a “generalist” in terms of being able to live in a variety of environments over a latitudinal range.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

References

  • Burnett WJ (2002) Longitudinal variation in algal symbionts (zooxanthellae) from the Indian Ocean zoanthid Palythoa caesia. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 234:105–109

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen AC, Lam KK, Nakano Y, Tsai WS (2003) A stable association of the stress-tolerant zooxanthellae, Symbiodinium Clade D, with the low temperature-tolerant coral, Oulastrea crispata (Scleractinia: Faviidae) in subtropical non-reefal coral communities. Zool Stud 42:540–550

    Google Scholar 

  • Felsenstein J (1985) Confidence limits on phylogenies: an approach using the bootstrap. Evolution 39:783–791

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guindon S, Gascuel O (2003) A simple, fast, and accurate algorithm to estimate large phylogenies by maximum likelihood. Syst Biol 52:696–704

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kemp DW, Cook CB, LaJeunesse TC, Brookes WR (2006) A comparison of the thermal bleaching responses of the zoanthid Palythoa caribaeorum from three different geographically different regions in south Florida. J Exp Mar Biol 335 306:266–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kimura M (1980) A simple method for estimating evolutionary rates of base substitutions through comparative studies of nucleotide sequences. J Mol Evol 16:111–120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LaJeunesse TC (2002) Diversity and community structure of symbiotic dinoflagellates from Caribbean coral reefs. Mar Biol 141:387–400

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LaJeunesse TC (2005) “Species” radiations of symbiotic dinoflagellates in the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific since the Miocene–Pliocene transition. Mol Biol Evol 22:570–581

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LaJeunesse TC, Loh WKW, Van Woesik R, Hoegh-Guldberg O, Schmidt GW, Fitt WK (2003) Low symbiont diversity in southern Great Barrier Reef corals, relative to those of the Caribbean. Limnol Oceanogr 48:2046–2054

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LaJeunesse TC, Thornhill DJ, Cox EF, Stanton FG, Fitt WK, Schmidt GW (2004a) High diversity and host specificity observed among symbiotic dinoflagellates in reef coral communities from Hawaii. Coral Reefs 23:596–603

    Google Scholar 

  • LaJeunesse TC, Bhagooli R, Hidaka M, deVantier L, Done T, Schmidt GW, Fitt WK, Hoegh-Guldberg O (2004b) Closely related Symbiodinium spp. differ in relative dominance in coral reef communities across environmental, latitudinal and biogeographic gradients. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 284:147–161

    Google Scholar 

  • Muscatine L, Porter JW (1977) Reef corals: mutualistic symbioses adapted to nutrient-poor environments. BioScience 27:454–460

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nakamura T, Yamazaki SS, Sakai K, Yamasaki H, Furushima Y, Yamamoto H (2006) Acroporid corals growing over a methane-bubbling hydrothermal vent, Southern Ryukyu Archipelago. Coral Reefs 25:382

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ono S, Reimer JD, Tsukahara J (2005) Reproduction of Zoanthus sansibaricus in the infra-littoral zone at Taisho Lava Field, Sakurajima, Kagoshima, Japan. Zool Sci 22:247–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pochon X, Montoya-Burgos JI, Stadelmann B, Pawlowski J (2006) Molecular phylogeny, evolutionary rates, and divergence timing of the symbiotic dinoflagellate genus Symbiodinium. Mol Phylogenet Evol 1:20–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reimer JD, Ono S, Takishita K, Tsukahara J, Maruyama T. (2006a) Molecular evidence suggesting species in the zoanthid genera Palythoa and Protopalythoa (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia) are congeneric. Zool Sci 23:87–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reimer JD, Ono S, Tsukahara J, Takishita K, Maruyama T. (2006b). Non-seasonal clade-specificity and subclade microvariation in symbiotic dinoflagellates (Symbiodinium spp.) in Zoanthus sansibaricus (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia) at Kagoshima Bay, Japan. Phycol Res (in press)

  • Reimer JD, Takishita K, Ono S, Tsukahara J, Maruyama T (2006c) Latitudinal and intracolony ITS-rDNA sequence variation in the symbiotic dinoflagellate genus Symbiodinium (Dinophyceae) in Zoanthus sansibaricus (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia). Phycol Res 54:122–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez F, Oliver JL, Marin A, Medina JR (1990) The general stochiatic model of nucleotide substitution. J Theor Biol 142:485–501

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez-Lanetty M, Hoegh-Guldberg O (2003) Symbiont diversity within the scleractinian coral Plesiastrea versipora, across the northwestern Pacific. Mar Biol 143:501–509

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ronquist F, Huelsenbeck JP (2003) Bayesian phylogenetic inference under mixed models. Bioinformatics (Oxf) 19:1572–1574

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rowan R, Powers DA (1992) Ribosomal RNA sequences and the diversity of symbiotic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae). Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 89:3639–3643

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ryland JS (1997) Reproduction in Zoanthidea (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia). Invertebr Reprod Dev 31:177–188

    Google Scholar 

  • Saitou N, Nei M (1987) The neighbor-joining method: a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. Mol Biol Evol 4:406–425

    Google Scholar 

  • Speksnijder AGCL, Kowalchuk GA, De Jong S, Kline E, Stephen JR, Laanbroeak HJ (2001) Microvariation artifacts introduced by PCR and cloning of closely related 16S rRNA gene sequences. Appl Environ Microbiol 67:469–472

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swofford DL (1998) PAUP*. V Phylogenetic analysis using parsimony (*and other methods), version 4. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA, USA

  • Thompson JD, Gibson TJ, Plewniak F, Jeanmougin F, Higgins DG (1997) The ClustalX windows interface: flexible strategies for multiple sequence alignment aided by quality analysis tools. Nucleic Acids Res 25:4876–4882

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tchernov D, Gorbunov MY, de Vargas C, Yadav SN, Milligan AJ, Haggblom M, Falkowski PG (2004) Membrane lipids of symbiotic algae are diagnostic of sensitivity to thermal bleaching in corals. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:13531–13535

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Masaru Kawato (JAMSTEC) for sequencing assistance, and Drs. Shusuke Ono and Junzo Tsukahara for their ideas on Palythoa. The following people helped with sampling: Dr. Yasuo Furushima (JAMSTEC), Tatsu Yarabu, Mamoru Uehara, Masanori Uehara, Osamu Tamashiro, Yuzo Tamashiro, (Ishigaki), Hideo Noda, Kei Sasahara (Miyakejima), Ryan Cox (Bonotsu), Mika Reimer, Denny Probizanski (Amami), Shin Hiasashi (Yoron and Erabu), and Dr. Hiroomi Uchida (Kushimoto). At JAMSTEC JDR was supported by a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) post-doctoral fellowship.

Author information

Author notes

  1. James D. Reimer

    Present address: Kuroshio Biological Research Foundation, 560 Nishidomari, Otsuki, Kochi, 788-0333, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Program for Marine Biology and Ecology, Extremobiosphere Research Center, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), 2-15 Natsushima, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, 237-0061, Japan

    James D. Reimer, Kiyotaka Takishita & Tadashi Maruyama

Authors
  1. James D. Reimer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kiyotaka Takishita
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Tadashi Maruyama
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James D. Reimer.

Additional information

Communicated by Biology Editor M. van Oppen.

Electronic supplementary material

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Reimer, J.D., Takishita, K. & Maruyama, T. Molecular identification of symbiotic dinoflagellates (Symbiodinium spp.) from Palythoa spp. (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia) in Japan. Coral Reefs 25, 521–527 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-006-0151-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-006-0151-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation