Developing the anemone aiptasia as a tractable model for cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis : generating transcriptomic resources and profiling gene expression
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Coral reefs are animal-built structures that provide habitats for a disproportionately large number of marine species relative to the small percentage of the ocean that they cover. Corals, and some other cnidarians such as anemones, host dinoflagellates within the cells of their gastrodermal tissue. The dinoflagellates fix carbon photosynthetically and transfer it to the host; the dinoflagellates can provide up to 90% of the hosts' metabolic requirements. The symbiosis between the cnidarian host and its dinoflagellate symbiont is therefore the trophic foundation on which coral reef are built. Despite its importance, the molecular mechanisms controlling symbiosis establishment, maintenance, and breakdown remain poorly understood. Our lab is working to further develop the small sea anemone, Aiptasia, as a model system for studying cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis. To this end, I sequenced the transcriptome of aposymbiotic Aiptasia, of symbiotic Aiptasia, and of the dinoflagellate symbionts. I then used these resources to perform gene-expression analysis comparing symbiotic and aposymbiotic anemones, which provided numerous testable biological hypotheses about both the structural basis of the symbiosis and the downstream metabolic effects of metabolite transfer to the host. These resources should serve as the foundation for future experiments in our laboratory and more widely in the field of coral biology.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2013 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Lehnert, Erik Michael |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Genetics. |
| Primary advisor | Pringle, John |
| Thesis advisor | Pringle, John |
| Thesis advisor | Fire, Andrew Zachary |
| Thesis advisor | Frommer, Wolf B, 1958- |
| Thesis advisor | Sherlock, Gavin |
| Advisor | Fire, Andrew Zachary |
| Advisor | Frommer, Wolf B, 1958- |
| Advisor | Sherlock, Gavin |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Erik Michael Lehnert. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Genetics. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2013. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2013 by Erik Michael Lehnert
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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