[Coral-List] A. pallida and histology

[David Fransolet]

Dear Coral List members,
I am actually doing a PhD thesis on coral bleaching and reinfection by  
new symbionts, some parts of this work are based on histological  
observations.   To do so, and before switching to coral, I will first  
work on the sea anemone Aiptasia pallida.  That’s where troubles  
begin.  After finaly succeeding in fixing anemones withouth altering  
their global shape I noticed that tissue looks terrible, making  
distinction between ectoderm and gastroderm barely possible  
(paraformaldéhyde 4% in FSW fixation, paraffin embedding, 3 to 10μm  
thick).  It seems to be a well known fact that A. Pallida is very hard  
to process for histological studies and that’s why, after some  
unsuccessful research, I’m turning to you.  Does anyone know any  
paper detailing histological procedures on A. pallida?  Any advice  
would also be  helpful and greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

David

PhD student, Animal Physiology, University of Liège