Ashey Jill, Putnam Hollie M, McManus M Conor
University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA.
Division of Marine Fisheries, Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Jamestown, RI, USA.
Biol Lett. 2025 Mar;21(3):20240469. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0469. Epub 2025 Mar 19.
The northern star coral, , is a temperate, facultatively symbiotic, scleractinian coral spanning the coastal western Atlantic. This calcifying species is mixotrophic with a broad geographical range, and therefore has high utility in addressing questions related to community ecology, symbiosis, population genetics, biomineralization and resilience to environmental perturbations. Here, we review the current peer-reviewed literature, which is primarily found in six focal areas: geographic range, habitat and ecology, symbiosis, life history, microbiome and genomics and transcriptomics. A cross-cutting theme of these studies emerges as the value of an experimental system that is facultatively symbiotic. Yet, the historic overgeneralization of symbiotic versus 'aposymbiotic' has constrained the interpretation of the basic biology and generalizability of conclusions. Emergent from our review, and timely with respect to climate change, is the value that brings as an experimental system with the potential to test questions on range adaptability and environmental resilience. We identify future avenues of research for studies that include integration of population genetics with organismal-molecular-cellular biology across the geographical range, while leveraging the power of the facultative symbiosis context.
北方星珊瑚（Astrangia poculata）是一种分布于大西洋西部沿海的温带、兼性共生石珊瑚。这种钙化物种具有混合营养方式，地理分布范围广，因此在解决与群落生态学、共生关系、种群遗传学、生物矿化以及对环境扰动的恢复力等相关问题方面具有很高的价值。在此，我们综述了当前的同行评审文献，这些文献主要集中在六个重点领域：地理分布范围、栖息地与生态学、共生关系、生活史、微生物组以及基因组学和转录组学。这些研究的一个贯穿性主题是兼性共生实验系统的价值。然而，过去对共生与“非共生”的过度概括限制了对基本生物学的解释以及结论的普遍性。从我们的综述中可以看出，并且就气候变化而言很及时的一点是，A. poculata作为一个有潜力测试范围适应性和环境恢复力问题的实验系统所具有的价值。我们确定了未来A. poculata研究的途径，包括在地理分布范围内将种群遗传学与生物个体 - 分子 - 细胞生物学相结合，同时利用兼性共生环境的优势。
