Characterization of Fatty Acids in Symbiotics and Aposymbiotic Astrangia poculata: Insigth into Energy Acquisitions and Environmental Adaptations

Fatty acids (FAs), a major component of lipids, play a crucial role in energy storage, cellular signaling, and the structure of cell membranes. These biomolecules provide valuable insights into resource acquisition, modification, and allocation in organisms. The Northern Star Coral, Astrangia poculata, serves as a model system for examining the role of fatty acids in metabolism due to its facultative symbiosis, allowing it to exist in both symbiotic and aposymbiotic states. Studying the fatty acid composition in A. poculata tissues offers insight into their dietary intake and how they acquire energy to support their metabolic functions in these different states. For this research, samples of both symbiotic and aposymbiotic A. poculata were collected from Fort Wetherill, Jamestown, RI. The coral tissue was processed to extract and transesterify the fatty acids, followed by analysis using Gas Chromatography Flame Ionization Detection (GC-FID) to separate the FAs by size, identify key types, and determine their concentration. Results revealed that the symbiont ecotype of A. poculata shares FAs between the host and the symbiont. Understanding the role of fatty acids in these corals is crucial to recognizing how they can achieve beneficial adaptations in challenging environments, with implications for the conservation of entire ecosystems impacted by environmental and anthropogenic stressors.

Presentation Preference: Poster

Primary Presenter: Héctor G. Torres-De Jesús, University of Puerto Rico (htorresdejesus@gmail.com)

Authors:

Héctor G. Torres-De Jesus, University of Puerto Rico  (htorresdejesus@gmail.com)

Lauren Zane, Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI, USA  (laurenzane@uri.edu)

Connor Love, Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI, USA  (connor.love@uri.edu)

Kelton McMahon, Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI, USA  (kelton_mcmahon@uri.edu)