Guided by the Northern Star Coral: A Research Synthesis and Roadmap for Astrangia poculata

The Northern Star Coral, Astrangia poculata, is a temperate, facultatively symbiotic, scleractinian coral spanning the coastal western Atlantic. This calcifying species is mixotrophic with broad geographic range, and therefore has high utility in addressing questions related to community ecology, symbiosis, population genetics, biomineralization, and resilience to environmental perturbations. Here, we review the current A. poculata peer-reviewed literature which is primarily found in six focal areas: Geographic Range, Habitat and Ecology, Symbiosis, Life History, Microbiome, and Genomics and Transcriptomics. A cross cutting theme of these studies emerges as the value of an experimental system that is facultatively symbiotic. Yet, the historic overgeneralization symbiotic vs “aposymbiotic” A. poculata has constrained the interpretation of the basic biology and generalizability of conclusions. Emergent from our review, and timely with respect to climate change, is the value that A. poculata brings as an experimental system with the potential to test questions on range adaptability and environmental resilience. We identify future avenues of research for A. poculata studies that include integration of population genetics with organismal-molecular-cellular biology across the geographic range, while leveraging the power of the facultative symbiosis context.