BACKGROUND Dinoflagellates are known for their capacity to form harmful blooms (e.g., "red tides") and as symbiotic, photosynthetic partners for corals. These unicellular eukaryotes have permanently condensed, liquid-crystalline chromosomes and immense nuclear genome sizes, often several times the size of the human genome. Here we describe the first draft assembly of a dinoflagellate nuclear ge...

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We used an integrative genetics approach using sequences of (1) nuclear ribosomal rDNA (internal transcribed spacers and partial large subunit rDNA), (2) single-copy microsatellite nuclear DNA, (3) chloroplast-encoded 23S rDNA, (4) mitochondrial cytochrome b, and (5) repeat variation at eight microsatellite markers, to test the hypothesis that the stress-tolerant, ‘morphologically cryptic’ Clad...

Climate change-related coral bleaching, i.e., the visible loss of zooxanthellae from the coral host, is increasing in frequency and extent and presents a major threat to coral reefs globally. Coral bleaching has been proposed to involve accelerating light stress of their microalgal endosymbionts via a positive feedback loop of photodamage, symbiont expulsion and excess in vivo light exposure. T...

24 Many reef-building corals acquire their algal symbionts (Symbiodinium sp.) from the 25 local environment upon recruitment. This horizontal transmission strategy where hosts 26 pair with locally available symbionts could serve to increase coral fitness across diverse 27 environments, as long as the host maintains high promiscuity and symbionts adapt 28 locally. Here, we tested this hypothesis...

Scleractinian coral are experiencing unprecedented rates of mortality due to increases in sea surface temperatures in response to global climate change. Some coral species however, survive high temperature events due to a reduced susceptibility to bleaching. We investigated the relationship between bleaching susceptibility and expression of five metabolically related genes of Symbiodinium spp. ...

The genetic composition of the resident Symbiodinium endosymbionts can strongly modulate the physiological performance of reef-building corals. Here, we used quantitative metabarcoding to investigate Symbiodinium genetic diversity in two species of mountainous star corals, Orbicella franksi and Orbicella faveolata, from two reefs separated by 19 km of deep water. We aimed to determine if the fr...

Coral disease outbreaks have increased over the last three decades, but their causal agents remain mostly unclear (e.g., bacteria, viruses, fungi, protists). This study details a 14-month-long survey of coral colonies in which observations of the development of disease was observed in nearly half of the sampled colonies. A bimonthly qPCR method was used to quantitatively and qualitatively evalu...

A community ecology approach to the study of the most common group of zooxanthellae, dinoflagellates in the genus Symbiodinium, was applied to symbiotic invertebrate assemblages on coral reefs in the western Caribbean, off the Yucatan peninsula (Puerto Morelos, Mexico) and over 1000 km away in the northeastern Caribbean, at Lee Stocking Island, Bahamas. Sequence differences and intragenomic var...

Second European evidence-based consensus on the diagnosis and management of ulcerative colitis Part 2: Current management Axel Dignass ⁎, James O. Lindsay, Andreas Sturm, Alastair Windsor , Jean-Frederic Colombel , Mathieu Allez , Gert D'Haens, André D'Hoore, Gerassimos Mantzaris , Gottfried Novacek , Tom Öresland, Walter Reinisch, Miquel Sans, Eduard Stange, Severine Vermeire, Simon Travis , G...