Abstract
Aeolidiella stephanieae is a stenophagous tropical nudibranch that feeds exclusively on glass anemones of the genus Aiptasia. These sea anemones usually harbour endosymbiotic photosynthetic dinoflagellates that contribute to the nutrition of their host by providing photosynthetates, such as fatty acids (FA). The present work determined the effect of parental diets on the FA profile of A. stephanieae embryos by feeding breeding pairs of this nudibranch with either symbiotic or aposymbiotic A. pallida. Contrasting FA profiles, namely in the levels of palmitic acid (16:0) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3), were recorded for both parental diets and egg masses produced by nudibranchs eating either symbiotic or aposymbiotic A. pallida. Noteworthy effects of parental dietary FAs on egg masses were also observed, particularly for DHA, which is mainly synthetized by the endosymbionts of A. pallida. Additionally, the present study also highlights how bleaching events may promote cascading effects on the nutrition of marine species with a stenophagous diet, such as A. stephanieae.
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Acknowledgments
Miguel C. Leal acknowledges the financial support by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal, through grant SFRH/BD/63783/2009. We also thank Sofia Engrola for her support during the culture of Aiptasia, Nancy Tenebaum for her helpful comments and revising the manuscript and to three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
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Communicated by T. L. Goulet.
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Leal, M.C., Nunes, C., Alexandre, D. et al. Parental diets determine the embryonic fatty acid profile of the tropical nudibranch Aeolidiella stephanieae: the effect of eating bleached anemones. Mar Biol 159, 1745–1751 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-012-1962-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-012-1962-1