Inter-specific coral chimerism: genetically distinct multicellular structures associated with tissue loss in Montipora capitata.

ABSTRACT: Montipora white syndrome (MWS) results in tissue-loss that is often lethal to Montipora capitata, a major reef building coral that is abundant and dominant in the Hawai'ian Archipelago. Within some MWS-affected colonies in Kane'ohe Bay, Oahu, Hawai'i, we saw unusual motile multicellular structures within gastrovascular canals (hereafter referred to as invasive gastrovascular multicellular structure-IGMS) that were associated with thinning and fragmentation of the basal body wall. IGMS were in significantly greater densities in coral fragments manifesting tissue-loss compared to paired normal fragments. Mesenterial filaments from these colonies yielded typical M. capitata mitochondrial haplotypes (CO1, CR), while IGMS from the same colony consistently yielded distinct haplotypes previously

SUBMITTER: Work TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3145771 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature