Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Zooxanthellae
Summary
Zooxanthellae is a colloquial term for single-celled dinoflagellates that are able to live in symbiosis with diverse marine invertebrates including demosponges, corals, jellyfish, and nudibranchs. Most known zooxanthellae are in the genus Symbiodinium, but some are known from the genus Amphidinium, and other taxa, as yet unidentified, may have similar endosymbiont affinities. The true Zooxanthella K.brandt is a mutualist of the radiolarian Collozoum inerme (Joh.Müll., 1856) and systematically placed in Peridiniales. Another group of unicellular eukaryotes that partake in similar endosymbiotic relationships in both marine and freshwater habitats are green algae zoochlorellae.
Zooxanthellae are photosynthetic organisms, which contain chlorophyll a and chlorophyll c, as well as the dinoflagellate pigments peridinin and diadinoxanthin. These provide the yellowish and brownish colours typical of many of the host species. During the day, they provide their host with the organic carbon products of photosynthesis, sometimes providing up to 90% of their host's energy needs for metabolism, growth and reproduction. In return, they receive nutrients, carbon dioxide, and an elevated position with access to sunshine.
Zooxanthellae can be grouped in the classes of Bacillariophyceae, Cryptophyceae, Dinophyceae, and Rhodophycaeae and of the genera Amphidinium, Gymnodinium, Aureodinium, Gyrodinium, Prorocentrum, Scrippsiella, Gloeodinium, and most commonly, Symbiodinium. Zooxanthellae of genus Symbiodinium belong to a total of eight phylogenetic clades A-H, differentiated via their nuclear ribosomal DNA and chloroplast DNA.
Zooxanthellae are autotrophs containing chloroplasts composed of thylakoids present in clusters of three. A pyrenoid protrudes from each chloroplast and is encased along with the chloroplast by a thick, starchy covering. Within the cell’s cytoplasm also exists lipid vacuoles, calcium oxalate crystals, dictyosomes, and mitochondria. The cell wall of zooxanthellae varies in structure across species.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.