Finally got around to running the Montipora flabellata samples that I took from Angela’s colonies back in November. I was expecting clade C Symbiodinium in all samples as the only prior knowledge of symbiont types in this species was ITS2-type C32/C32a (LaJeunesse et al. 2004, LaJeunesse and Thornhill 2013). Nevertheless, using clade C- and D-specific qPCR assays (Cunning and Baker 2013) we found that three out of four colonies (including one that had recovered from bleaching and two that had not bleached) contained clade D symbionts and no clade C. The fourth colony, which was bleached when sampled, contained trace levels of clade C and no clade D. This is the first report of clade D Symbiodinium in this species, and preliminary patterns indicate there is potential for symbiont shuffling following bleaching.

SampleID Colony ID Origin Status Note Symbiont clade(s)
660 P   bleached   n.d.
661 P   bleached   trace C
662 P   bleached   trace C
663 A HIMB recovered tip D
664 A HIMB recovered edge D
665 A HIMB recovered dark edge D
666 1   did not bleach   D
667 1   did not bleach   D
668 1   did not bleach   D
669 2   did not bleach 364 edge D
670 2   did not bleach 359 edge - unhealthy D
671 2   did not bleach 355 tip D