[CDHC] Sequencing of Porites Genome

[Cheryl Woodley]

Sorry for any cross-posting with the Coral List Serve.  I was asked to
be sure the CDHC List received this message.  This is a follow up to the
request from Dr. Gary Ostrander for letters of support for this project.

Cheryl

Dear CDHC List Server Members,

The sequence of a coral genome would provide a tremendous foundation for
coral scientific research, as well as provide a basis for technology
development that could
benefit coral-reef resource management.  Dr. Gary Ostrander (Johns
Hopkins University) is leading an effort towards the goal of sequencing
the genome of Porites lobata.
We are soliciting letters of support for this endeavor from the coral
reef scientific and management community.  Once the genome is sequenced,
the work will be published
in a peer-reviewed journal and the entire genome will be made freely
accessible to the public.

We have chosen Porites lobata because of its rising importance as a
‘laboratory rat’ in coral ecotoxicology, coral cell biology, coral
immunity and coral neurophysiology.
We have also chosen this species because of its extensive distribution
in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf.
Another important advantage
of Porites over other species, such as Acroporids or Montastrea spp, is
that Porites lacks some of the various biochemical interfering
substances present in many coral
families; substances that makes it very difficult to near impossible to
apply molecular and biochemical techniques without significant
artifact.  Finally, Porites lobata and
Porites asteroides show high similarity for many of their enzymes and
genes.  It should be easy to adapt technologies that would utilize the
gene sequence information of
Porites lobata (such as PCR, gene array, ELISAs, Real-time PCR,
immuno-histology) to Porites asteroides.

Attached to this email is a letter explaining this project in more
detail, as well as guidelines for a letter of support.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Gary
(gofish at jhu.edu) or I.

Sincerely,

Craig

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