Current thinking on how the Toxoplasma gondii parasite invades its host is incorrect, according to a study published today in Nature Methods describing a new technique to knock out genes. The findings could have implications ...
Definition. Coral bleaching is a process whereby the coral colonies lose their colour, either due to the loss of pigments by microscopic algae (zooxanthellae) living in symbiosis with their host organisms (polyps), or because these zooxanthellae have been expelled.
Coral bleaching occurs when coral polyps expel algae that lives inside their tissues. Normally, coral polyps live in an endosymbiotic relationship with the algae and that relationship is crucial for the coral and hence for the health of the whole reef. [1] Bleached corals continue to live.