Heat-evolved algal symbionts enhance thermotolerance of adult corals without growth trade-off

Heat-evolved microalgal symbionts of the generalist species, Cladocopium proliferum (strain SS8), were exposed to elevated temperature (31°C) for ~10 years and were introduced into four genotypes of chemically bleached adult fragments of the scleractinian coral, Galaxea fascicularis. Two of the four coral genotypes acquired SS8 and the new symbionts persisted for the 5 months of the experiment and enhanced adult coral thermotolerance, compared with corals that were inoculated with the wild-type C. proliferum strain.All raw data and R codes for statistical analysis are available on https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8336616. Details of each file are provided in Table S15. Metabolite annotations on MetaSpace are available at https://metaspace2020.eu/ (project name: heat-evolved algal symbionts enhance thermotolerance of adult corals without growth trade-off). Raw sequences of the ITS2 Symbiodiniaceae data sets are available in GenBank (project Accession nos.: PRJNA983409; SRR24910332-SRR24910491).

本研究针对广食性物种增殖角藻（Cladocopium proliferum，菌株SS8）的热驯化微藻共生体开展实验：将其置于31℃高温环境下驯化约10年，随后接种至4株经化学漂白的石珊瑚——巨枝鹿角珊瑚（Galaxea fascicularis）的成体片段中。4株珊瑚基因型中有2株成功定殖SS8菌株，该新型共生体在整个5个月的实验周期内稳定存续；与接种野生型增殖角藻菌株的珊瑚相比，其成体珊瑚的耐热性显著提升。本研究所有原始数据及统计分析所用R代码均可通过https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8336616获取，各文件的详细说明见表S15。MetaSpace平台的代谢物注释信息可通过https://metaspace2020.eu/获取（项目名称：热驯化藻类共生体提升成体珊瑚耐热性且无生长代价）。本研究ITS2虫黄藻科（Symbiodiniaceae）数据集的原始序列已上传至GenBank数据库（项目登录号：PRJNA983409；SRR24910332-SRR24910491）。