Fig. 5

Coral meta-organism association-related pathways and analytical model for associations in coral meta-organism. Representing primary potential pathways related coral meta-organism associations (A, adapted from Lin et al. [40]), coral-algal association shifting (B), and algal-prokaryotic competition (C). Yellow, green, and blue parts represent coral host, Symbiodiniaceae community, and prokaryotic community, respectively. Small circles in red, green, and blue represent the transcripts potentially contributing to coral meta-organism associations in coral, Symbiodiniaceae, and prokaryotic microbes, respectively. \({\lambda }_{1}^{B}=\frac{1}{{e}_{1}}(\frac{{g}_{1}}{{d}_{1}}{\overline{H} }^{\overline{B} }-1)\), \({\lambda }_{2}^{B}=\frac{1}{{e}_{2}}(\frac{{g}_{2}}{{d}_{2}}{\overline{H} }^{\overline{B} }-1)\), \({\lambda }_{1}^{S}=\frac{1}{{e}_{1}}(\frac{{g}_{1}}{{d}_{1}}{\overline{H} }^{\overline{S} }-1)\), \({\lambda }_{2}^{S}=\frac{1}{{e}_{2}}(\frac{{g}_{2}}{{d}_{2}}{\overline{H} }^{\overline{S} }-1)\). \({\overline{H} }^{\overline{S} }\), \({\overline{H} }^{\overline{B} }\) represent coral biomass in boundary situations where the density of prokaryotic or Symbiodiniaceae community is zero, respectively. Other equation characters are the same as the analytical model characters explained in the discussion. Abbreviations: AA, amino acids; DOP, dissolved organic phosphorus; Glc, glucose; Glu, glutamate; ROS, reactive oxygen species; TCA, tricarboxylic acid cycle; VB2, vitamin B2 (riboflavin); VB9, vitamin B9 (folate); S, Symbiodiniaceae community; B, prokaryotic community