By adding genes to a nonmineralizing relative that’s better suited to lab life, team aims to show how corals build reefs
Reefs are vibrant, living structures laid down over time by tiny tentacled animals. But how exactly corals construct the crystals that become the reefs’ craggy rocks—a process known as biomineralization—has long been a mystery. In June, University of Florida marine biologist Federica Scucchia believed she and her colleagues had finally made a breakthrough. Peering through a microscope at blue and red blobs along the tentacle of a 0.
After all, anemones and corals are fairly closely related—they’re both Cnidarians— points out Martindale’s laboratory technician, Brent Foster. Anemones share with corals some of the same genes that have been previously implicated in biomineralization. What anemones notably lack are genes for so-called intrinsically disordered proteins, which play crucial roles in accumulating calcium and carbonate ions.
But was it actually concentrating calcium? Scucchia drew on experience with corals to suggest adding a different fluorescent molecule, Calcein Blue, that glows in the presence of calcium. Sure enough, the same regions making SpCARP1 also seemed to be aggregating calcium. Although many more changes will likely be required before the anemone will create carbonate crystals, this is an important first step, Scucchia says. Foster adds that the team was “pretty excited” when it saw that.
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