Corallicolids and the zoanthid, Parazoanthus swiftii

Generate single cell transcriptomes of corallicolids from two different hosts, Madracis mirabilis and Parazoanthus swiftii. To collect data from host, Parazoanthus swiftii and its associated sponge for removal of host contamination from corallicolid data.Samples of corallicolids and their respective hosts were collected off the coast of Curacao from 2021-2023. Corallicolids were isolated using two methods, single cell isolation and cDNA synthesis following the Picelli et al. 2014 protocol as well as density gradient isolations of crushed coral slurries, followed by RNA extraction using TRIzol. RNA extraction of Parazoanthus swiftii and its corresponding sponge host followed the same TRIzol protocol. Single cell libraries were prepared using Nextera XT while bulk RNA extractions were processed using Illumina mRNA prep. Samples were then sequenced using Illumina sequencing platforms.