Differential gene expression in skeletal organic matrix proteins of scleractinian corals associated with mixed aragonite/calcite skeletons under low mMg/Ca conditions

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  • Differential gene expression in skeletal organic matrix proteins of scleractinian corals associated with mixed aragonite/calcite skeletons under low <i>m</i>Mg/Ca conditions

Abstract

<jats:p>Although coral skeletons generally comprise aragonite crystals, changes in the molar Mg/Ca ratio (<jats:italic>m</jats:italic>Mg/Ca) in seawater result in the incorporation of calcite crystals. The formation mechanism of aragonite and calcite crystals in the scleractinian coral <jats:italic>Acropora tenuis</jats:italic> was therefore investigated by RNA-seq analysis, using early growth stage calcite (<jats:italic>m</jats:italic>Mg/Ca = 0.5) and aragonite (<jats:italic>m</jats:italic>Mg/Ca = 5.2)-based corals. As a result, 1,287 genes were up-regulated and 748 down-regulated in calcite-based corals. In particular, sixty-eight skeletogenesis-related genes, such as ectin, galaxin, and skeletal aspartic acid-rich protein, were detected as up-regulated, and six genes, such as uncharacterized skeletal organic matrix protein 5, down-regulated, in low-Mg/Ca conditions. Since the number of down-regulated genes associated with the skeletal organic matrix of aragonite skeletons was much lower than that of up-regulated genes, it is thought that corals actively initiate construction of an aragonite skeleton by the skeletal organic matrix in low-Mg/Ca conditions. In addition, different types of skeletal organic matrix proteins, extracellular matrix proteins and calcium ion binding proteins appeared to change their expression in both calcite-formed and normal corals, suggesting that the composition of these proteins could be a key factor in the selective formation of aragonite or calcite CaCO<jats:sub>3</jats:sub>.</jats:p>

Journal

  • PeerJ

    PeerJ 7 e7241-, 2019-07

    PeerJ

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