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. 2025 Apr;38(2):573-586.
doi: 10.1007/s10534-025-00664-y. Epub 2025 Jan 15.

Zinc speciation promotes distinct effects on dinoflagellate growth and coral trypsin-like enzyme activity

Lúcio Lourenço de Freitas Neto  1 , Rudã Fernandes Brandão Santos  2 , Maria Angélica da Silva  2 , Ranilson de Souza Bezerra  2 , Flávia Saldanha-Corrêa  3 , Breno Pannia Espósito  4
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Zinc speciation promotes distinct effects on dinoflagellate growth and coral trypsin-like enzyme activity

Lúcio Lourenço de Freitas Neto et al. Biometals. 2025 Apr.

Abstract

Zinc is an essential metal to living organisms, including corals and their symbiotic microalgae (Symbiodiniaceae). Both Zn(II) deprivation and overload are capable of leading to dysfunctional metabolism, coral bleaching, and even organism death. The present work investigated the effects of chemically defined Zn species (free Zn, ZnO nanoparticles, and the complexes Zn-histidinate and Zn-EDTA) over the growth of the dinoflagellates Symbiodinium microadriaticum, Breviolum minutum, and Effrenium voratum, and on the trypsin-like proteolytic activity of the hydrocoral Millepora alcicornis. B. minutum was the most sensitive strain to any form of added Zn. For the other strains, the complex [Zn(His)2] better translated metal load into growth. This complex was the only tested compound that did not interfere with the trypsin-like activity of Millepora alcicornis extracts. Also, histidine was able to recover the activity of the enzyme inhibited by zinc. [Zn(His)2] is a potential biocarrier of zinc for microalgae or coral cultivation. These findings suggest that the control of chemical speciation of an essential metal could lead to useful compounds that assist autotrophy, while not affecting heterotrophy, in the coral holobiont.

Keywords: Symbiodiniaceae; Histidine; Millepora; Sunscreen; Zinc.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

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