Abstract
Reef-building corals depend on an intracellular symbiosis with photosynthetic dinoflagellates for their survival in nutrient-poor oceans. Symbionts are phagocytosed by coral larvae from the environment and transfer essential nutrients to their hosts. Aiptasia, a small tropical marine sea anemone, is emerging as tractable model system for coral symbiosis; however, to date functional tools and genetic transformation are lacking. Here we have established an efficient workflow to collect Aiptasia eggs for in vitro fertilization and controlled microinjection as the basis for experimental manipulations in the developing embryo and larvae. We demonstrate that protein and mRNA can successfully be injected into live Aiptasia zygotes to label filamentous actin to mark cell outlines via recombinant Lifeact-GFP and cell membranes and nuclei via farnesylated mCherry and NLS-eGFP, in embryos and larvae. These proof-of-concept approaches pave the way for future functional studies of development and symbiosis establishment in Aiptasia, a powerful model to unravel the molecular mechanisms underlying intracellular coral-algal symbiosis.
Footnotes
Contact Information: M.B.: madeline.bucher{at}cos.uni-heidelberg.de; tel +49 6221 546252
V.A.S.J.: victor.jones{at}cos.uni-heidelberg.de; tel +49 6221 546252
E.A.H.: liz.hambleton{at}cos.uni-heidelberg.de; tel +49 6221 546264