New work from a team of Carnegie cell, genomic and developmental biologists solves a longstanding marine science mystery that could aid coral conservation.
New work from a team of Carnegie cell, genomic and developmental biologists solves a longstanding marine science mystery that could aid coral conservation. The researchers identified the type of cell that enables a soft coral to recognize and take up the photosynthetic algae with which it maintains a symbiotic relationship, as well as the genes responsible for this transaction.
Their breakthrough research is published in Nature.
Corals are marine invertebrates that build large exoskeletons from which reefs are constructed. But this architecture is only possible because of a mutually beneficial relationship between the coral and various species of single-celled algae called dinoflagellates that live inside individual coral cells.
Read more at: Carnegie Institute for Science
The soft coral Xenia growing in the Carnegie coral research facility. Researchers used it to reveal the type of cell that enables a soft coral to recognize and take up the photosynthetic algae with which it maintains a symbiotic relationship, as well as the genes responsible for this transaction. (Photo Credit: Carnegie Embryology)
