Document Type

Technical Report

Date of this Version

2015

Publication Source

PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

Volume

112

Issue

2

Start Page

607

Last Page

612

DOI

10.1073/pnas.1413483112

Abstract

Symbiotic dinoflagellate algae residing inside coral tissues supply the host with the majority of their energy requirements through the translocation of photosynthetically fixed carbon. The algae, in turn, rely on the host for the supply of inorganic carbon. Carbon must be concentrated as CO2 in order for photosynthesis to proceed, and here we show that the coral host plays an active role in this process. The host-derived symbiosome membrane surrounding the algae abundantly expresses vacuolar H+-ATPase (VHA), which acidifies the symbiosome space down to pH ∼4. Inhibition of VHA results in a significant decrease in average H+ activity in the symbiosome of up to 75% and a significant reduction in O2 production rate, a measure of photosynthetic activity. These results suggest that host VHA is part of a previously unidentified carbon concentrating mechanism for algal photosynthesis and provide mechanistic evidence that coral host cells can actively modulate the physiology of their symbionts.

Copyright/Permission Statement

Originally published in PNAS by the National Academy of Sciences © Barott et al.

Comments

At the time of this publication Dr. Barott was affiliated with the Scrips Institution of Oceanography, but she is now a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania.

Keywords

proton pump, V type H+ ATPase, zooxanthellae, Symbiodinium, carbon concentrating mechanism

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Date Posted: 04 October 2017

This document has been peer reviewed.