Carbon fixation and analysis of assimilates in a coral-dinoflagellate symbiosis

✍ Scribed by K. Schmitz; B. P. Kremer

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1977
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 796 KB
• Volume: 42
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0025-3162
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00402192

✦ Synopsis

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Freshly collected pieces of the hermatypic coral Acropora cf. scandens containing dinoflagellate endosymbionts (presumably Gymnodiniummicroadriaticum) were allowed to assimilate 14C from H14CO~ in the light and in the dark. Time-dependent carbon uptake resulted in intense 14C-labelling of ethanol-soluble as well as of insoluble assimilates. About forty 14C-labelled assimilates have been identified. Polymeric (ethanol-insoluble) compounds achieve about 30% of total radiocarbon incorporation after 60 min incubation. Kinetics of 14C-labelling of single assimilates are analyzed. Percentages of typical photosynthates in the soluble fraction undergo characteristic time-dependent changes. Lipids proved to be the main accumulation products of carbon assimilation by incorporating more than 50% of 14C after 60 min