E. The genetic diversity of symbiotic algae in Australasia
The question of what defines a coral's physiology is intimately related to the genetic identity of the algal symbiont. Until recently, these single-celled protist algae were considered to be members of a single pandemic species, Symbiodinium microadriaticum. Pioneering studies by Trench (Schoenberg and Trench 1980a,b,c; Trench 1979) and Rowan (Rowan 1991; Rowan and Powers 1991a,b) have revealed that zooxanthellae are a highly diverse group of organisms which may include hundreds of taxa with perhaps as many as two or three species per host invertebrate species (Rowan et al. 1997). My laboratory has shown this to be also true for Australian and South East Asian waters (Loh, Carter and Hoegh-Guldberg (1998). This scientific "bombshell" has highlighted how little we know about the biology of this ecologically important organism. My research group is pursuing exciting preliminary work done by our research group as part of a small ARC and is expanding on a series of molecular tools (ITS, 18S, 28S RFLP and sequencing) that have been developed to
