Comparative Proteomics of Octocoral and Scleractinian Skeletomes and the Evolution of Coral Calcification.

ABSTRACT: Corals are the ecosystem engineers of coral reefs, one of the most biodiverse marine ecosystems. The ability of corals to form reefs depends on the precipitation of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) under biological control. However, several mechanisms underlying coral biomineralization remain elusive, for example, whether corals employ different molecular machineries to deposit different CaCO3 polymorphs (i.e., aragonite or calcite). Here, we used tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) to compare the proteins occluded in the skeleton of three octocoral and one scleractinian species: Tubipora musica and Sinularia cf. cruciata (calcite sclerites), the blue coral Heliopora coerulea (aragonitic skeleton), and the scleractinian aragonitic Montipora digitata. Reciprocal Blast analysis revealed extremely low

SUBMITTER: Conci N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7533068 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature