The role of vertical symbiont transmission in altering cooperation and fitness of coral-Symbiodinium symbioses

The aim of this study was to compare cooperation and fitness among three pairs of closely related coral species differing in their mode of symbiont transmission (n=6 species, 3 vertical and 3 horizontal). Illumina Miseq amplicon sequencing of the Symbiodinium ITS2 locus was used to evaluate the diversity of the in hospite Symbiodinium communities for experimental corals.