Costs and benefits of maternally inherited algal symbionts in coral larvae

Many marine invertebrates provide their offspring with symbionts. Yet the consequences of maternally inherited symbionts on larval fitness remain largely unexplored. In the stony coral Favia fragum (Esper 1797), mothers produce larvae with highly variable amounts of endosymbiotic algae, and we exami...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 2017-06, Vol.284 (1857), p.20170852-20170852
Main Authors: Chamberland, Valérie F., Latijnhouwers, Kelly R. W., Huisman, Jef, Hartmann, Aaron C., Vermeij, Mark J. A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algae
Animals
Anthozoa - microbiology
Bet-Hedging Theory
Cost benefit analysis
Ecology
Environment
Environmental conditions
Favia fragum
Fitness
Fragum
Invertebrates
Larva - microbiology
Larvae
Marine invertebrates
Maternal Inheritance
Microalgae - physiology
Offspring
Prolonged Pelagic Phase
Symbiont Provisioning
Symbionts
Symbiosis
Temperature
Thermal Stress
Vertical Transmission
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Summary:Many marine invertebrates provide their offspring with symbionts. Yet the consequences of maternally inherited symbionts on larval fitness remain largely unexplored. In the stony coral Favia fragum (Esper 1797), mothers produce larvae with highly variable amounts of endosymbiotic algae, and we examined the implications of this variation in symbiont density on the performance of F. fragum larvae under different environmental scenarios. High symbiont densities prolonged the period that larvae actively swam and searched for suitable settlement habitats. Thermal stress reduced survival and settlement success in F. fragum larvae, whereby larvae with high symbiont densities suffered more from non-lethal stress and were five times more likely to die compared with larvae with low symbiont densities. These results show that maternally inherited algal symbionts can be either beneficial or harmful to coral larvae depending on the environmental conditions at hand, and suggest that F. fragum mothers use a bet-hedging strategy to minimize risks associated with spatio-temporal variability in their offspring's environment.
ISSN:0962-8452
1471-2954
DOI:10.1098/rspb.2017.0852