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A Novel Method for Coral Explant Culture and Micropropagation

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Abstract

We describe here a method for the micropropagation of coral that creates progeny from tissue explants derived from a single polyp or colonial corals. Coral tissue explants of various sizes (0.5–2.5 mm in diameter) were manually microdissected from the solitary coral Fungia granulosa. Explants could be maintained in an undeveloped state or induced to develop into polyps by manipulating environmental parameters such as light and temperature regimes, as well as substrate type. Fully developed polyps were able to be maintained for a long-term in a closed sea water system. Further, we demonstrate that mature explants are also amenable to this technique with the micropropagation of second-generation explants and their development into mature polyps. We thereby experimentally have established coral clonal lines that maintain their ability to differentiate without the need for chemical induction or genetic manipulation. The versatility of this method is also demonstrated through its application to two other coral species, the colonial corals Oculina patigonica and Favia favus.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Varda Wexler (Tel Aviv University) for her technical assistance and Amikam Shoob (Tel Aviv University) for the photography. We would also like to thank Rina Jeger and Yona Lichtenfeld from Ben Gurion University for their help with TEM and Itzik Brickner for the histology.

This work was supported in part by the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF) and the Raynor Chair for Environmental Conservation Research to YL.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Maya Vizel, Yossi Loya & Esti Kramarsky-Winter

  2. Haereticus Environmental Laboratory, P.O. Box 92, Clifford, VA, 24533, USA

    Craig A. Downs

Authors
  1. Maya Vizel
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  2. Yossi Loya
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  3. Craig A. Downs
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  4. Esti Kramarsky-Winter
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maya Vizel.

Electronic Supplementary Material

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Supplementary Fig. 1

Experimental temperature cycle of the cultured explants. (GIF 12 kb)

High resolution (TIFF 30 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

A one-year-old adult polyp grown in the polyp culture. a An oral view. b An aboral view. Note detachment scar. (GIF 64 kb)

High resolution (TIFF 1,104 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3

Oculina patagonica development. a An undeveloped motile explant. b A developed polyp bearing mouth, septae, and tentacles. (GIF 46 kb)

High resolution (TIFF 649 kb)

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(DOC 29 kb)

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Vizel, M., Loya, Y., Downs, C.A. et al. A Novel Method for Coral Explant Culture and Micropropagation. Mar Biotechnol 13, 423–432 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10126-010-9313-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10126-010-9313-z

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