Day-glow coral

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Http://zoology.unh.edu/faculty/lesser/lesser.html. paul falkowski's laboratory: http://marine.rutgers.edu/faculty_pfalkowski.html. day-glow coral.

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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTSNATURE REVIEWS |MICROBIOLOGYVOLUME 2 |OCTOBER 2004 |773The daytime orange glow ofCaribbean coral is due to a symbioticrelationship with cyanobacteria,according to a report in Science.Corals are known to require asymbiotic relationship with endosym-biotic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae),which provide the coral with a sourceofcarbon in the form ofglycerol,butnow it seems that a cyanobacterium isalso involved in a ‘three-way’symbiosis.Michael Lesser and co-workersstudied the Caribbean coral Montas-traeacavernosa,which fluorescesorange during the day.In vivoexci-tation/emission spectra ofthe coralwere found to be characteristic ofabsorption by the cyanobacterialprotein phycoerythrin (a phycobilinprotein that acts as a light-harvestingdevice in cyanobacterial photo-synthesis),and the presence ofthisprotein was confirmed by immuno-blots ofcoral homogenates that werepositive for the β-polypeptide ofphycoerythrin.The authors then used epifluores-cent microscopy to identify m...

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