Understanding metabolic interactions in the coral holobiont
Reef-building corals form complex relationships with photosynthesizing dinoflagellates (family: Symbiodiniaceae) and a consortia of microbial partners, which are collectively known as the coral holobiont.
I am currently working on quantifying: 1) the metabolic contributions of the different partners to the holobiont and 2) the phenotypic differences in anabolism that exist between specific tissue regions and individual cell types. I achieve this by stable isotopic labelling of the fundamental metabolite pyruvate, combined with correlated electron microscopy and NanoSIMS ion microprobe isotopic imaging.