Assessing Coral Stress Responses using Molecular Biomarkers of Gene Transcription

Department

Molecular and Cellular Biology

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2001

Abstract

We present a method for detecting rapid changes in coral gene expressionat the messenger ribonucleicacid (mRNA) level. The staghorn coral Acropora cervicornisA. formosa sperm, which lacks zooxanthellae, to demonstrate that the genes coding for the mRNA transcripts produced are found within the coral genome. The gene probes developed in this study provide coral biologists with a new tool for coral assessment. Gene probes are sensitive, toxicant-specific biomarkers of coral stress responses with which gene sequence information can be obtained, providing a mechanism for identifying the stressor altering the gene expression.

Journal Title

Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

Journal ISSN

1552-8618

Volume

20

Issue

3

First Page

537

Last Page

543

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1002/etc.5620200312

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