Rethinking Frags...

[OUsnakebyte]

Hi all -

 

I was with Mary (the scientist I have teamed up with at the zoo the past few coral spawning seasons) in Australia for the coral spawn last November working at AIMS (Australia Institute for marine Science). We were doing our own cryopreservation studies and looking at sperm motility over time, but I was able to see what others were working on as well.

 

I met the two authors of this study below and sat in on a few of their experiments:

 

Coral Sex Just Got a Little More Interesting

 

The two Andrews - or Negs and Smiley, as there are affectionately called - are not only fantastic scientists but also genuinely awesome people. I really enjoyed speaking with them, as they were as friendly as they could be.

 

This study demonstrates the totipotency in larval coral cells and really drives home the potential for Mary's current work - cryopreserving these larval stem cells of the coral larvae as frozen banks for the future.

 

I'm bummed they did not post their video of them chruning up their coral larvae and breaking them apart, creating the "Mini-Me's" - it's REALLY funny. I have that video, but I don't think I'm supposed to post it.

 

Anyway, enjoy the article.

 

Cheers

Mike

[Coral Hind]

Very cool read, thanks for sharing. Man, you have a cool job!

[Reefoholic]

Very informative read! Thanks for sharing!

[mogurnda]

Pretty wild that they can do that. Thanks for the post, Mike.

[dave w]

Good article. To me, it was left unclear whether the two "identical twins" would develop into planulae without fertilization, but I may just have missed that part of the explanation. It would seem that unfertilized eggs would not develop further, but I could be wrong.

[OUsnakebyte]

This is all taking place post fertilization - all eggs have been fertilized, and IIRC, they are working with 12-hr embryos (we also froze stem cells at 18 hours post fertilization).

 

You are correct that unfertilized eggs will not develop further, and they just basically melt away. This happens all the time when we get poor fertilization rates - usually from poor sperm motility but could also be from improper sperm concentration.

 

But.... since there is reproductive plasticity.... in some corals unfertilized eggs can develop into larvae, in a process called parthenogenesis (which is really just a form of asexual reproduction). But, that is not what was taking place here. They are working with fertilized eggs.

 

Cheers

Mike

Edited March 9, 2012 by OUsnakebyte