Skip to main content
Advertisement

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Interviews
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About JEB
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Outstanding paper prize
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contact JEB
    • Subscriptions
    • Advertising
    • Feedback
    • For library administrators
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Experimental Biology
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

supporting biologistsinspiring biology

Journal of Experimental Biology

  • Log in
Advanced search

RSS  Twitter  Facebook  YouTube  

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Interviews
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About JEB
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Outstanding paper prize
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contact JEB
    • Subscriptions
    • Advertising
    • Feedback
    • For library administrators
Research Article
Green fluorescent protein regulation in the coral Acropora yongei during photoacclimation
Melissa S. Roth, Michael I. Latz, Ralf Goericke, Dimitri D. Deheyn
Journal of Experimental Biology 2010 213: 3644-3655; doi: 10.1242/jeb.040881
Melissa S. Roth
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: melissasroth@gmail.com
Michael I. Latz
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ralf Goericke
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Dimitri D. Deheyn
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & tables
  • Supp info
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF + SI
  • PDF
Loading

SUMMARY

Reef-building corals inhabit high light environments and are dependent on photosynthetic endosymbiotic dinoflagellates for nutrition. While photoacclimation responses of the dinoflagellates to changes in illumination are well understood, host photoacclimation strategies are poorly known. This study investigated fluorescent protein expression in the shallow-water coral Acropora yongei during a 30 day laboratory photoacclimation experiment in the context of its dinoflagellate symbionts. Green fluorescent protein (GFP) concentration measured by Western blotting changed reversibly with light intensity. The first 15 days of the photoacclimation experiment led to a ∼1.6 times increase in GFP concentration for high light corals (900 μmol quanta m–2 s–1) and a ∼4 times decrease in GFP concentration for low light corals (30 μmol quanta m–2 s–1) compared with medium light corals (300 μmol quanta m–2 s–1). Green fluorescence increased ∼1.9 times in high light corals and decreased ∼1.9 times in low light corals compared with medium light corals. GFP concentration and green fluorescence intensity were significantly correlated. Typical photoacclimation responses in the dinoflagellates were observed including changes in density, photosynthetic pigment concentration and photosynthetic efficiency. Although fluorescent proteins are ubiquitous and abundant in scleractinian corals, their functions remain ambiguous. These results suggest that scleractinian corals regulate GFP to modulate the internal light environment and support the hypothesis that GFP has a photoprotective function. The success of photoprotection and photoacclimation strategies, in addition to stress responses, will be critical to the fate of scleractinian corals exposed to climate change and other stressors.

FOOTNOTES

  • This research was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (M.S.R.); the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's John Dove Isaacs Professorship of Natural Philosophy (Nancy Knowlton); the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Biomimetics, Biomaterials, and Biointerfacial Sciences program (grant no. FA9550-07-1-0027; D.D.D. and M.I.L.); and the Department of Scripps Institution of Oceanography (M.S.R.). The authors would like to thank M. Roadman for assistance with HPLC, E. Kisfaludy and F. Nosratpour for aquarium support, the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography for providing corals, V. Vacquier and M. Landry for use of equipment, G. Moy for antibody development support, B. Magit for general assistance, S. Bornheimer and anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript.

  • Supplementary material available online at http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/213/21/3644/DC1

  • LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

    FP
    fluorescent protein
    Fv/Fm
    variable fluorescence/maximum fluorescence
    FWHM
    full-width at half-maximum
    GFP
    green fluorescent protein
    HL
    high light treatment
    LL
    low light treatment
    ML
    medium light treatment
    PAM
    pulse amplitude modulated
    PSII
    photosystem II
    • © 2010.
    View Full Text
    Previous ArticleNext Article
    Back to top
    Previous ArticleNext Article

    This Issue

     Download PDF

    Email

    Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Journal of Experimental Biology.

    NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

    Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
    Green fluorescent protein regulation in the coral Acropora yongei during photoacclimation
    (Your Name) has sent you a message from Journal of Experimental Biology
    (Your Name) thought you would like to see the Journal of Experimental Biology web site.
    CAPTCHA
    This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
    Share
    Research Article
    Green fluorescent protein regulation in the coral Acropora yongei during photoacclimation
    Melissa S. Roth, Michael I. Latz, Ralf Goericke, Dimitri D. Deheyn
    Journal of Experimental Biology 2010 213: 3644-3655; doi: 10.1242/jeb.040881
    del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
    Citation Tools
    Research Article
    Green fluorescent protein regulation in the coral Acropora yongei during photoacclimation
    Melissa S. Roth, Michael I. Latz, Ralf Goericke, Dimitri D. Deheyn
    Journal of Experimental Biology 2010 213: 3644-3655; doi: 10.1242/jeb.040881

    Citation Manager Formats

    • BibTeX
    • Bookends
    • EasyBib
    • EndNote (tagged)
    • EndNote 8 (xml)
    • Medlars
    • Mendeley
    • Papers
    • RefWorks Tagged
    • Ref Manager
    • RIS
    • Zotero
    Alerts

    Please log in to add an alert for this article.

    Sign in to email alerts with your email address

    Article navigation

    • Top
    • Article
      • SUMMARY
      • INTRODUCTION
      • MATERIALS AND METHODS
      • RESULTS
      • DISCUSSION
      • FOOTNOTES
      • LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
      • REFERENCES
    • Figures & tables
    • Supp info
    • Info & metrics
    • PDF + SI
    • PDF

    Related articles

    Cited by...

    More in this TOC section

    • Unexpected lack of specialisation in the flow properties of spitting cobra venom
    • Responses of Manduca sexta larvae to heat waves
    • Heat hardening in a pair of Anolis lizards: constraints, dynamics and ecological consequences
    Show more RESEARCH ARTICLES

    Similar articles

    Other journals from The Company of Biologists

    Development

    Journal of Cell Science

    Disease Models & Mechanisms

    Biology Open

    Advertisement

    Predicting the Future: Species Survival in a Changing World

    Read our new special issue exploring the significant role of experimental biology in assessing and predicting the susceptibility or resilience of species to future, human-induced environmental change.


    Big Biology Podcast - Hollie Putnam and coral bleaching

    Catch the next JEB-sponsored episode of the Big Biology Podcast where Art and Marty talk to Hollie Putnam about the causes of coral bleaching and the basic biology of corals in the hope of selectively breeding corals that can better tolerate future ocean conditions.

    Read Hollie's Review on the subject, which is featured in our current special issue. 


    Stark trade-offs and elegant solutions in arthropod visual systems

    Many elegant eye specializations that evolved in response to visual challenges continue to be discovered. A new Review by Meece et al. summarises exciting solutions evolved by insects and other arthropods in response to specific visual challenges.


    Head bobbing gives pigeons a sense of perspective

    Pigeons might look goofy with their head-bobbing walk, but it turns out that the ungainly head manoeuvre allows the birds to judge distance.

    Articles

    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Interviews
    • Sign up for alerts

    About us

    • About JEB
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news

    For Authors

    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Outstanding paper prize
    • Biology Open transfer

    Journal Info

    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts

    Contact

    • Contact JEB
    • Subscriptions
    • Advertising
    • Feedback

     Twitter   YouTube   LinkedIn

    © 2021   The Company of Biologists Ltd   Registered Charity 277992