Genetic basis of stony coral biomineralization: History, trends and future prospects

Jeana L. Drake, Neta Varsano, Tali Mass

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Despite their simple body plan, stony corals (order Scleractinia, phylum Cnidaria) can produce massive and complex exoskeletal structures in shallow, tropical and subtropical regions of Earth's oceans. The species-specific macromorphologies of their aragonite skeletons suggest a highly coordinated biomineralization process that is rooted in their genomes, and which has persisted across major climatic shifts over the past 400 + million years. The mechanisms by which stony corals produce their skeletons has been the subject of interest for at least the last 160 years, and the pace of understanding the process has increased dramatically in the past decade since the sequencing of the first coral genome in 2011. In this review, we detail what is known to date about the genetic basis of the stony coral biomineralization process, with a focus on advances in the last several years as well as ways that physical and chemical tools can be combined with genetics, and then propose next steps forward for the coming decade.

Original languageEnglish
Article number107782
Pages (from-to)107782
JournalJournal of Structural Biology
Volume213
Issue number4
Early online date26 Aug 2021
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2021

Keywords

  • Aragonite
  • Genomic
  • Highly acidic proteins
  • Proteomic
  • Skeletal organic matrix

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Structural Biology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Genetic basis of stony coral biomineralization: History, trends and future prospects'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this