Coral holobiont

The sedentary lifestyle of benthic sessile invertebrates, such as sponges and corals, makes them particularly vulnerable to predation, competition and environmental changes (see Chapters 1 and 2). These metazoans have developed different defense strategies, including the production of defense and communication molecules, and also the capacity to host and favor an association which is more or less rich and more or less stable with bacteria which produce molecules from which they benefit. The sponge and its associated microbiota respond to the definition of the holobiont, which in... 

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