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MEPS
Marine Ecology Progress Series

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MEPS 161:117-122 (1997)  -  doi:10.3354/meps161117

Oriented intra-colonial transport of 14C labeled materials during coral regeneration

U. Oren1,*, B. Rinkevich2, Y. Loya1

1Department of Zoology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, and the Porter Super-Center for Ecological and Environmental Studies, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
2National Institute of Oceanography, Tel-Shikmona, PO Box 8030, Haifa 31080, Israel

Here we document for the first time an oriented intra-colonial translocation of photosynthetic products towards regenerating areas in 2 scleractinian corals, Favia favus (n = 5) and Platygyra lamellina (n = 3) in Eilat (Red Sea). 14C bicarbonate was injected into round stainless-steel cylinders (10 h daylight incubation period) enabling labeling of a restricted tissue area of 20 cm2 in each colony center. Three tissue lesion sizes (small, intermediate and large) were inflicted simultaneously on each colony at a distance of 10 cm from and at different angles to the labeled area. After 3 wk, tissue and skeletal samples were taken from various locations on the coral colonies, and 14C activity was determined. In F. favus a significant labeling of tissues was recorded in areas bordering the recuperating large lesions and along the axis connecting these lesions with the labeled centers. This pattern of labeling was not found in the smaller lesions. In P. lamellina14C incorporation was recorded in the tissues bordering large as well as intermediate sized lesions. The skeletal samples from F. favus showed significant 14C deposition in areas bordering the large lesions, indicating the use of translocated 14C materials for skeletogenesis in large lesion regeneration. Our results indicate that 14C labeled materials originating in distant areas of the coral colony are translocated towards large regenerating lesions. Furthermore, the size of the coral lesion is shown to affect the magnitude of this translocation.


Regeneration · Translocation · Photosynthetic products · Scleractinian corals · Red Sea · Favia favus · Platygyra lamellina


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