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https://hdl.handle.net/2440/82201
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Type: | Journal article |
Title: | Microarray analysis identifies candidate genes for key roles in coral development |
Author: | Grasso, L. Maindonald, J. Rudd, S. Hayward, D. Saint, R. Miller, D. Ball, E. |
Citation: | BMC Genomics, 2008; 9(online):1-18 |
Publisher: | BioMed Central Ltd. |
Issue Date: | 2008 |
ISSN: | 1471-2164 1471-2164 |
Statement of Responsibility: | Lauretta C Grasso, John Maindonald, Stephen Rudd, David C Hayward, Robert Saint, David J Miller and Eldon E Ball |
Abstract: | Background: Anthozoan cnidarians are amongst the simplest animals at the tissue level of organization, but are surprisingly complex and vertebrate-like in terms of gene repertoire. As major components of tropical reef ecosystems, the stony corals are anthozoans of particular ecological significance. To better understand the molecular bases of both cnidarian development in general and coral-specific processes such as skeletogenesis and symbiont acquisition, microarray analysis was carried out through the period of early development – when skeletogenesis is initiated, and symbionts are first acquired. Results: Of 5081 unique peptide coding genes, 1084 were differentially expressed (P ≤ 0.05) in comparisons between four different stages of coral development, spanning key developmental transitions. Genes of likely relevance to the processes of settlement, metamorphosis, calcification and interaction with symbionts were characterised further and their spatial expression patterns investigated using whole-mount in situ hybridization. Conclusion: This study is the first large-scale investigation of developmental gene expression for any cnidarian, and has provided candidate genes for key roles in many aspects of coral biology, including calcification, metamorphosis and symbiont uptake. One surprising finding is that some of these genes have clear counterparts in higher animals but are not present in the closely-related sea anemone Nematostella. Secondly, coral-specific processes (i.e. traits which distinguish corals from their close relatives) may be analogous to similar processes in distantly related organisms. This first large-scale application of microarray analysis demonstrates the potential of this approach for investigating many aspects of coral biology, including the effects of stress and disease. |
Keywords: | Animals Anthozoa DNA, Complementary Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis Cluster Analysis Gene Expression Profiling Symbiosis Calcification, Physiologic Amino Acid Sequence Metamorphosis, Biological Expressed Sequence Tags Molecular Sequence Data |
Rights: | © 2008 Grasso et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
DOI: | 10.1186/1471-2164-9-540 |
Published version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-9-540 |
Appears in Collections: | Aurora harvest 4 Molecular and Biomedical Science publications |
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hdl_82201.pdf | Published version | 2.7 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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