{"id":65,"date":"2019-11-06T21:06:49","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T02:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/txiang\/?page_id=65"},"modified":"2022-04-10T21:49:24","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T01:49:24","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/txiang\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Coral-algal symbiosis<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our laboratory is interested in answering fundamental questions about the biology of coral-algal symbiosis. <\/h2>\n\n\n\n



(1) What are the molecular components necessarily for the establishment and maintenance of coral-dinoflagellate symbiosis?<\/em>

(2) How is the nutrient homeostasis maintained in dinoflagellate-coral symbiosis?<\/em>

(3) What is the molecular mechanisms that underlie algal symbiont population control in the host tissue?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The dinoflagellate in the family Symbiodiniaceae forms a symbiotic relationship with many hosts including coral, anemones, jellyfish, and clams. They provide coral with photosynthetically fixed carbon while the coral supplies the algae with inorganic nutrients and a haven from predation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little is known about the mechanisms governing the establishment, maintenance and breakdown of the coral-dinoflagellate interaction. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We have been developing a proxy system for examining the coral mutualism in which the dinoflagellate symbiont\u00a0Symbiodiniaceae is introduced into a clonal population of the host\u00a0Aiptasia (Exaiptasia pallida<\/em>),<\/em>\u00a0a small sea anemone closely related to corals.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • With clonal populations both of the Aiptasia anemone host and of the potential symbionts, we can remove the confounding factor of genetic heterogeneity from our studies. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    • With axenic Symbiodiniaceae cultures, we can also remove the interference that contaminants could otherwise contribute to the dynamics of symbiosis establishment and maintenance. <\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

      <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

      The generation of clonal and axenic Symbiodiniaceae cultures has allowed us to move toward our goal of developing a model system in which we can study the cnidarian and dinoflagellate components of the symbiosis both separately and together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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      Our suite of five strains with a wide phylogenetic separation within the genus also allows for an enormous breadth of study with respect to growth, physiology, photosynthetic capacity, infection ability, and a variety of other characteristics. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Toxin biosynthesis in red-tide dinoflagellates<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      The red-tide dinoflagellate Karenia brevis<\/em> causes harmful algal bloom and produces neurotoxins that poison marine animals as well as humans. The frequency of coral bleaching and red tide is increasing in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      • What are the metabolic pathways controlling the biosynthesis of the neurotoxins in red-tide dinoflagellate Karenia brevis?<\/strong><\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Coral-algal symbiosis Our laboratory is interested in answering fundamental questions about the biology of coral-algal symbiosis. (1) What are the molecular components necessarily for the establishment and maintenance of coral-dinoflagellate symbiosis? (2) How is the nutrient homeostasis maintained in dinoflagellate-coral symbiosis? (3) What is the molecular mechanisms that underlie algal symbiont population control in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3117,"featured_media":241,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-65","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/txiang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/txiang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/txiang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/txiang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/txiang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/txiang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":565,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/txiang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65\/revisions\/565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/txiang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/txiang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}