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  #1  
Old 12/06/2007, 01:21 PM
acrylic_300 acrylic_300 is offline
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Quick Zooxanthellae Question

This may be a dumb question...but on hard corals do just the polyps have zoox or does the tissue on the branches also have it?
  #2  
Old 12/06/2007, 01:43 PM
TheOtherReefer TheOtherReefer is offline
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It's a symbiotic relationship that is within the entire coral.
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Old 12/06/2007, 01:50 PM
m2434 m2434 is offline
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some corals have Zooxanthellae in their polyps or polyps and tissue. Others just in tissue and have somewhat transparent polyps.
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  #4  
Old 12/06/2007, 02:24 PM
mesocosm mesocosm is offline
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Greetings All !


Quote:
... on hard corals do just the polyps have zoox or does the tissue on the branches also have it?
Hermatypic corals typically host the functional majority of their zooxanthellae in a tissue layer called the gastrodermis (sometimes referenced as the inner gastrodermis). This is not to say that zooxanthellae haven't been found in other layers, nor that there aren't some interesting disagreements about coral anatomy definitions ...

Technically, zooxanthellae location isn't about external morphology (like polyps), it's more about tissue layers (expressed in a variety of morphologies). If you were thinking more about zooxanthellae density (as opposed to location), this can vary significantly ... and is very much associated with morphology.

Quote:
It's a symbiotic relationship that is within the entire coral.
Indeed ...


Here's a diagram that presents it better than I could fumble around describing it:
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/eeeb/bak...natomy-fig.jpg

Notice how the zooxanthellae-bearing tissue is, depending on where you focus, proximal to the water column, while this same tissue layer is also proximate to the gastrovascular cavity. I'm babbling about this because some folks try to gauge zooxanthellae location by external morphology alone ... this is an error.



More graphics ...

General Coral Anatomy
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/eeeb/bak...natomy-fig.jpg

Zooxanthellae Density Pic
http://www.sbg.ac.at/ipk/avstudio/pi...an/zooxant.jpg

Electron Micrograph of Zooxanthellae
http://www.coral.noaa.gov/themes/pics/zoox1.gif



JMO ... HTH
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  #5  
Old 12/06/2007, 02:57 PM
acrylic_300 acrylic_300 is offline
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Thanks mesocosm, the links that you post are always very valuable and hurt my brain for many days.

The links you gave me on amino's and aggregates kept me busy for a week. I'm actually still researching it.

Now I'm trying to figure out how.... carbs/amino's/ammonium/lightness/darkness effect the relationship between Zoox and their host.

Wondering if a change in a polyp will coincide with a branch?

There is probably no way to darken a polyp and lighten a branch or vise versa.
 

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