• Scientists have discovered a new species of algae, *Durusdinium*, which may be a key factor in the survival of coral reefs, and Rob Rowan, who inspired the research, has mysteriously disappeared.
• The term “symbiosis” was coined by German botanist Anton de Bary in 1879.
• Karl Andreas Heinrich Brandt discovered that the small amber orbs lining the digestive tissues of marine creatures were not part of them, but a type of symbiotic algae, which he named “zooxanthellae”.
• Rob Rowan realized that DNA had the power to reveal what microscopes could not.
• Rowan and Dennis Powers published a genetic analysis of zooxanthellae in the journal Science, which revealed that zooxanthellae are not all the same and that there are at least three species.
• Andrew Baker and Rowan found that corals hosting the species *Durusdinium* did not bleach during a historic El Niño system, and that these corals became more common.
• Australian scientists discovered that juvenile coral hosting *Durusdinium* grew two to three times slower than their siblings hosting other symbionts.
• Baker believes that “people have been maybe too willing to label *Durusdinium* as being selfish” and suggests that something about *Durusdinium* stresses coral out, toughening them up so they can withstand future conditions.
• Baker and his colleagues followed the fates of more than 100 corals around the central Pacific island of Kiribati during a severe, 10-month-long heat wave and found that corals already hosting *Durusdinium* didn’t bleach, but few survived.
• In 2014, near Miami, coral researchers noticed that many brain coral, maze coral, and boulder coral were dying from Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease.
• Baker’s graduate student Caroline Dennison performed experiments bleaching *Breviolum* from the coral and then providing them with *Durusdinium* and found that the corals hosting *Durusdinium* were two to three times less susceptible to the disease.
• Rob Rowan, a scientist who inspired both the author and Andrew Baker, has disappeared without a trace.
• Baker is a scientist studying coral and their symbiotic relationship with algae.
• A new species of algae, *Durusdinium*, is being found in coral reefs and may be a key factor in their survival.
• Baker is unsure if this new species will save coral, but believes it will be a big part of their biology.
Published February 1, 2023
Visit Nautilus to read Juli Berwald’s original post The Algae That Might Save Earth’s Coral Reefs