[Coral-List] Submit Post

[_Family Friendly Gaming_]

Hi,

    I would love to submit this post as I am genuinely curious about
something for my research project. I listed the message below.


Hello Everyone,

I am doing a science research project in Highschool. I am currently working
on creating a project outline on extracting the symbiodinium from samples
of Aiptasia Pallida and introducing said symbiodinium to bleached zoanthid
fragments. With the hopes of reviving the fragments and increasing the
thermal resilience of the zoanthids.

I wanted to see if any researchers or aquarists with experience could
confirm that this would be possible. A study by Buerger et. al extracted
Aiptasia symbiodinium then induced heat stress on the symbiodinium in vitro
then reintroduced the symbiodinium to the host coral which lacked the
dinoflagellates. https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/sciadv.aba2498

I wanted to take the resilient Aiptasia symbiodinium and infuse it into the
not so resilient zoanthids.

I plan on extracting the Aiptasia symbiodinium by blending the Aiptasia
then centrifuging to separate the symbiodinium cells. Once I have collected
enough of the algae I would be able to introduce it to bleached zoanthid
fragments. The bleached fragments should accept the symbiodinium, at least
I think so.

I plan in introducing the Aiptasia symbiodinium to the zoanthids by putting
them in the same tank. According to the study I linked above this should
work.

I just wanted to get other peoples' opinions on this, and see if others
think it is possible to transfer the symbiodinium to another coral species.
I believe its pretty doable due to the fact that cnidarians utilize very
similar fundamental zooxanthellae, and many corals have multiple types of
zooxanthellae within the host at one time.

Any help is appreciated!


Thank you,
Karun