[Coral-List] Bicarbonate transporters in scleractinian corals

[Manuel ARANDA]

Dear coral-list,



On behalf of all contributing authors I would like to draw your attention
to a recent study on bicarbonate transporters in corals published in
Scientific Reports.



Briefly, in this the study we characterized plasma membrane-type HCO3-
transporters in the scleractinian coral *Stylophora pistillata* using a
draft genome. We find several solute carrier (SLC) genes to be encoded in
the genome, five belonging to the mammalian-type SLC4 family, and three to
the mammalian-type SLC26 family. Through comparative analyses with the
published *Acropora digitifera* and *Nematostella vectensis* genomes we
identified a SLC4 homolog (SLC4γ) that apparently arose through a
Scleractinia specific gene duplication event. Antibody staining confirmed
that the expression of this protein is restricted to the calicoblastic
ectoderm in *S. pistillata*. We conclude that this gene might be a key gene
for skeleton formation in corals, with a central role in supplying HCO3- to
the site of calcification. We believe this finding bears profound
implications for our understanding of coral biomineralization and the
evolution of scleractinian corals within cnidarians.



The publication can be found here:

 http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150604/srep09983/full/srep09983.html



Regards,

Manuel


-- 

Manuel Aranda Lastra
Assistant Professor
Red Sea Science and Engineering Research Center
4700 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Building 2, 2216
Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Mobile: +966 544700661
Office: +966 2808 2979

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