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Characterization of fatty acid composition in healthy and bleached corals from Okinawa, Japan

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Abstract

Under bleaching conditions, corals lose their symbiotic zooxanthellae, and thus, the ability to synthesize fatty acids (FAs) from photosynthetically derived carbon. This study investigated the lipid content and FA composition in healthy and bleached corals from the Odo reef flat in Okinawa, southern Japan, following a bleaching event. It was hypothesized that the FA composition and abundance would change as algae are lost or die, and possibly microbial abundance would increase in corals as a consequence of bleaching. The lipid content and FA composition of three healthy coral species (Pavona frondifera, Acropora pulchra, and Goniastrea aspera) and of partially bleached and completely bleached colonies of P. frondifera were examined. The FA composition did not differ among healthy corals, but differed significantly among healthy, partially bleached, and completely bleached specimens of P. frondifera. Completely bleached corals contained significantly lower lipid and total FA content, as well as lower relative amounts of polyunsaturated FAs and higher relative amounts of saturated FAs, than healthy and partially bleached corals. Furthermore, there was a significantly higher relative concentration of monounsaturated FAs and odd-numbered branched FAs in completely bleached corals, indicating an increase in bacterial colonization in the bleached corals.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Ministry of Education, Science, Sport, and Culture of Japan (Monbukagakusho), and the 21st Century COE Program University of the Ryukyus for financial support. We also thank four anonymous reviewers for helpful comments, I.S. Mchenga for support during the final preparation of this manuscript, and all students in the Laboratory of Ecology and Systematics for technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Ecology and Systematics, Faculty of Science, University of the Ryukyus, Senbaru-1, Nishihara, Okinawa, 903-0213, Japan

    Zainudin Bachok, Prosper Mfilinge & Makoto Tsuchiya

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  1. Zainudin Bachok
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  2. Prosper Mfilinge
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  3. Makoto Tsuchiya
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Correspondence to Makoto Tsuchiya.

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Bachok, Z., Mfilinge, P. & Tsuchiya, M. Characterization of fatty acid composition in healthy and bleached corals from Okinawa, Japan. Coral Reefs 25, 545–554 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-006-0130-9

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