Abstract
Calicoblastic epitheliomas (CEs) have been studied in corals of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Oman. We assessed the chemical characteristics of the disease in Acropora valida corals in Chabahar Bay in the northern Gulf of Oman. The tumors appeared as discolored nodular masses occupying < 20% of the total colony area. The prevalence of the disease was low (< 10%), but the masses became abundant in some colonies. The skeletons of both tumors and normal tissues consisted of aragonite crystals, but amorphous aragonite was also detected in tumor tissues. The carbonate content and Mg/Ca ratios were higher in the CEs relative to normal tissues.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of data and material (data transparency)
The data will be available on request.
Code Availability (software application or custom code)
Not applicable.
Change history
03 November 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41208-022-00499-1
References
Aeby GS, Williams GJ, Franklin EC, Haapkyla J, Harvell CD, Neale S, Page CA, Raymundo L, Vargas-Ángel B, Willis BL, Work TM (2011) Growth anomalies on the coral genera Acropora and Porites are strongly associated with host density and human population size across the Indo-Pacific. PLoS ONE 6(2):e16887
Akiva A, Neder M, Kahil K, Gavriel R, Pinkas I, Goobes G, Mass T (2018) Minerals in the pre-settled coral Stylophora pistillata crystallize via protein and ion changes. Nat Commun 9(1):1880
Andersson ER, Stewart JA, Work TM, Woodley CM, Schock TB, Day RD (2020) Morphological, elemental, and boron isotopic insights into pathophysiology of diseased coral growth anomalies. Sci Rep 10(1):8252
Bak RPM (1983) Neoplasia, regeneration and growth in the reef-building coral Acropora palmata. Mar Biol 77(3):221–227
Bischoff WD, Sharma SK, MacKenzie FT (1985) Carbonate ion disorder in synthetic and biogenic magnesian calcites: a Raman spectral study. Am Min 70(5–6):581–589
Cheney DP (ed) (1975) Hard tissue tumors of scleractinian corals. Pages 77–87 in W. H. Hildemann, and A. A. Benedict, editors. Immunologic Phylogeny. Springer US, Boston, MA
Coles SL, Seapy DG (1998) Ultra-violet absorbing compounds and tumorous growths on acroporid corals from Bandar Khayran, Gulf of Oman, Indian Ocean. Coral Reefs 17(2):195–198
De La Pierre M, Carteret C, Maschio L, André E, Orlando R, Dovesi R (2014) The Raman spectrum of CaCO3 polymorphs calcite and aragonite: A combined experimental and computational study. J Chem Phys 140(16):164509
DeCarlo TM (2018) Characterizing coral skeleton mineralogy with Raman spectroscopy. Nat Commun 9(1):5325
DePaolo DJ (2011) Surface kinetic model for isotopic and trace element fractionation during precipitation of calcite from aqueous solutions. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 75(4):1039–1056
Farfan GA, Cordes EE, Waller RG, DeCarlo TM, Hansel CM (2018) Mineralogy of deep-Sea coral aragonites as a function of aragonite saturation state. Front Mar Sci 5:473
Kathryn PS, James WP, Cecilia T (2004) Disease and immunity in Caribbean and Indo-Pacific zooxanthellate corals. MEPS 266:273–302
Kumagai NH, Yamano H (2018) High-resolution modeling of thermal thresholds and environmental influences on coral bleaching for local and regional reef management. PeerJ 6:e4382
Loya Y, Bull G, Pichon M (1984) Tumor formations in scleractinian corals. Helgoländer Meeresunters 37(1):99–112
Mass T, Giuffre AJ, Sun CY, Stifler CA, Frazier MJ, Neder M, Tamura N, Stan CV, Marcus MA, Gilbert PU (2017) Amorphous calcium carbonate particles form coral skeletons. PNAS 114(37):E7670–E7678
McClanahan TR, Weil E, Maina J (2009) Strong relationship between coral bleaching and growth anomalies in massive Porites. Glob Chang Biol 15(7):1804–1816
Peters EC, Halas JC, McCarty HB (1986) Calicoblastic neoplasms in acropora palmata, with a review of reports on anomalies of growth and form in corals. JNCI 76(5):895–912
Pokroy B, Fieramosca JS, Von Dreele RB, Fitch AN, Caspi EN, Zolotoyabko E (2007) Atomic Structure of Biogenic Aragonite. Chem Mater 19(13):3244–3251
Pokroy B, Fitch AN, Lee PL, Quintana JP, El’ad NC, Zolotoyabko E (2006) Anisotropic lattice distortions in the mollusk-made aragonite: A widespread phenomenon. J Struct Biol 153(2):145–150
Pokroy B, Quintana JP, Caspi EN, Berner A, Zolotoyabko E (2004) Anisotropic lattice distortions in biogenic aragonite. Nat Mat 3(12):900–902
Rosenberg E, Loya Y (2013) Coral health and disease. Springer Science & Business Media
Sale TL, Hunter CL, Hong C, Moran AL (2019) Morphology, lipid composition, and reproduction in growth anomalies of the reef-building coral Porites evermanni and Porites lobata. Coral Reefs 38(5):881–893
Stolarski J, Przenioslo R, Mazur M, Brunelli (2007) High-resolution synchrotron radiation studies on natural and thermally annealed scleractinian coral biominerals. J Appl Crystallogr 40(1):2–9
Sun CY, Stifler CA, Chopdekar RV, Schmidt CA, Parida G, Schoeppler V, Fordyce BI, Brau JH, Mass T, Tambutté S, Gilbert PU (2020) From particle attachment to space-filling coral skeletons. PNAS 117(48):30159–30170
Weiner S, Levi-Kalisman Y, Raz S, Addadi L (2003) Biologically formed amorphous calcium carbonate. Connect Tissue Res 44(1):214–218
White PR, Soule JD, Squires DF (1965) Abnormal Corallites. Science 150(3692):77–78
Funding
This work was supported by the Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Science (INIOAS).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest/Competing interests
The authors have no Conflicts of interest/Competing interests.
Ethics approval
Not applicable.
Consent to participate (include appropriate statements)
Not applicable.
Consent for publication (include appropriate statements)
Not applicable.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ghazilou, A., Ershadifar, H. & Kor, K. A glance at the chemistry of calicoblastic epithelioma in Acropora valida. Thalassas 39, 487–492 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41208-022-00419-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41208-022-00419-3