MOLECULAR TAXONOMY OF SYMBIOTIC DINOFLAGELLATES IN SCLERACTINIAN CORALS
造礁石珊瑚共生藻的分子分类研究

Scleractinian corals-symbiotic dinoflagellates is one of the most important symbiotic systems in coral reefs, investigating the classification of symbiotic dinoflagellates is important in understanding how coral reefs will respond to environmental changes. This experiment investigated the composition of the dinoflagellate genus Symbiodinium of 25 species of scleractinian corals from 15 genera and 8 families in coral reefs of Xuwen through PCR-RFLP analysis of nlsrDNA (nuclear large-subunit ribosomal DNA), found the dinoflagellate genus Symbiodinium in 62 samples belong to clade C; using ITS (internal transcribed spacers) sequence analysis and PCR-RFLP of nssrDNA (nuclear small-subunit ribosomal DNA) confirms clade C can be further divided into two sub-clades. The results showed the diversity of the dinoflagellate genus Symbiodinium in scleractinian corals in Xuwen is relatively low, and suggested the ability of coral reefs ecosystem to respond to environmental changes is relatively poor.