i am taking a cellular and molecular biology class this semester as an elective for my major and i was thinking of doing an experiment on the side. does anyone have any thoughts on this and if so what would you do? Like would you combine a different colored fluorescent pigment to the coral, maybe alter its growth structure by recombining the dna?
altering corals
- Thread starter shaggy14
- Start date
ERICinFL
Rejisturd Mimbur
:thumbsup: Yes! Imagine if you could alter a coral to be pest resistant and become hardier to tank conditions. If it grew faster, there would be more and more aquacultured coral available and less coming off wild reefs. I have often wondered why this isn't being practiced on a large scale. Even if a corals DNA could be altered to withstand warmer temps, these corals could be re-introduced to reefs and may help solve many of the issues reefs have, as global climate increases.
OwenInAZ
New member
Molecular geneticist here.
That would be a super sweet experiment
The problem, as I see it (and as a disclaimer, I work with bacteria, not eukaryotes), is getting all the cells in the coral to express whatever genes you want it to at the same time. I don't know of any efficient ways to get eukaryotic cells in an entire organism to take up and express exogenous genes.
Growth structure probably isn't determined by a single gene, nor is the pigmentation. More likely is many different gene products acting in concert to give the growth pattern and coloration. So, even if recombinant DNA is used in this case, it probably wouldn't be as simple as just introducing new genes.
In terms of repopulating the reefs with warmer temperature-resistant coral, the problem is the law of unintended consequences, which is why we keep such a tight reign on recombinant organisms in, say, the food supply. We don't really know what effect being able to grow at a higher temperature would have on totally unrelated aspects of coral growth.
Aside from those issues, I think it'd be a cool experiment. Maybe you should go into that field to work it out
That would be a super sweet experiment
The problem, as I see it (and as a disclaimer, I work with bacteria, not eukaryotes), is getting all the cells in the coral to express whatever genes you want it to at the same time. I don't know of any efficient ways to get eukaryotic cells in an entire organism to take up and express exogenous genes.Growth structure probably isn't determined by a single gene, nor is the pigmentation. More likely is many different gene products acting in concert to give the growth pattern and coloration. So, even if recombinant DNA is used in this case, it probably wouldn't be as simple as just introducing new genes.
In terms of repopulating the reefs with warmer temperature-resistant coral, the problem is the law of unintended consequences, which is why we keep such a tight reign on recombinant organisms in, say, the food supply. We don't really know what effect being able to grow at a higher temperature would have on totally unrelated aspects of coral growth.
Aside from those issues, I think it'd be a cool experiment. Maybe you should go into that field to work it out
my school has nothing that cool. im stuck in north texas about 8-10 hours away from the nearest beach. getting an almost useless biology degree instead(might as well, only 3 electives away)
The main thing i will have available is GFP, and since many corals already contain a version of the FP(fluorescent pigment), whether it be green, red, blue, or whatever other versions are out there, I figured it might not be too complicated to add it to a coral without that certain color. like adding GFP to a pink birdsnest. Might be able to give it green spots on the skin, green polyps, or who knows? In the class's coursework, we will be using the GFP on bacteria(more along your line of study). I just thought I could try something that would be even more interesting to me because i could actually relate it to something i love doing.
The main thing i will have available is GFP, and since many corals already contain a version of the FP(fluorescent pigment), whether it be green, red, blue, or whatever other versions are out there, I figured it might not be too complicated to add it to a coral without that certain color. like adding GFP to a pink birdsnest. Might be able to give it green spots on the skin, green polyps, or who knows? In the class's coursework, we will be using the GFP on bacteria(more along your line of study). I just thought I could try something that would be even more interesting to me because i could actually relate it to something i love doing.
acrylic_300
New member
Colchicine
A poisonous, pale-yellow alkaloid, C22H25NO6, obtained from the
autumn crocus and used in plant breeding to induce chromosome doubling and in medicine to treat gout.
I know it has been used in mutating marijuana over the years.
Maybe you could unwittingly create something deadly depending on what part of the coral mutated.
I think with colchicine you have to keep rolling the dice and take whatever it decides to give you.
The last thing you see, may be mesentarial filaments ripping your eyes out of their sockets right before the nematocysts paralyze your brain.
Good luck
A poisonous, pale-yellow alkaloid, C22H25NO6, obtained from the
autumn crocus and used in plant breeding to induce chromosome doubling and in medicine to treat gout.
I know it has been used in mutating marijuana over the years.
Maybe you could unwittingly create something deadly depending on what part of the coral mutated.
I think with colchicine you have to keep rolling the dice and take whatever it decides to give you.
The last thing you see, may be mesentarial filaments ripping your eyes out of their sockets right before the nematocysts paralyze your brain.
Good luck
ctenophors rule
New member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15577934#post15577934 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by acrylic_300
Colchicine
A poisonous, pale-yellow alkaloid, C22H25NO6, obtained from the
autumn crocus and used in plant breeding to induce chromosome doubling and in medicine to treat gout.
I know it has been used in mutating marijuana over the years.
Maybe you could unwittingly create something deadly depending on what part of the coral mutated.
I think with colchicine you have to keep rolling the dice and take whatever it decides to give you.
The last thing you see, may be mesentarial filaments ripping your eyes out of their sockets right before the nematocysts paralyze your brain.
Good luck
how do u know about the marijuana ??? jw XD lol
i know their has been some work with this in zoos....just simpler
a dude glued to halves of 2 zoos of different species and the have a color morph, it looks awesome!
acrylic_300
New member
I stumbled onto it ....after doing a search on reef keeping.
addicted2reefin
New member
[violation]
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kvosstra
New member
Lets ignore those two posts, honestly, you want to get the gametes so that you can introduce a DNA casette with either modified promoters or something like GFP to get instant feedback as to the uptake of your introduced gene modification.
I would assume that some bacterium would also work on a piece of coral instead, such that you would innoculate the coral and have the bacteria spread your altered DNA. IN this way, using GFP to show cells that have taken up your new DNA could then be removed (like a growth tip) and grown as a frag. I'm not entirely sure how to deal with the issue of 100% uptake by the cells in that area, so someone with more knowledge of coral cells will have to fill in...
I would assume that some bacterium would also work on a piece of coral instead, such that you would innoculate the coral and have the bacteria spread your altered DNA. IN this way, using GFP to show cells that have taken up your new DNA could then be removed (like a growth tip) and grown as a frag. I'm not entirely sure how to deal with the issue of 100% uptake by the cells in that area, so someone with more knowledge of coral cells will have to fill in...
kvosstra
New member
In the past I did the bacteria strategy on plants. We simply cut the plants (cut the top off, literally made them a "flat-top" so as to make an entry point for the bacteria) and then dipped the whole portion of the plant which had been cut and then collected mature seeds from them. The resulting progeny then contained the altered DNA (these were back screened to make sure they did contain the mutation).
I am not sure how to isolate a particular part of the coral, I have just never gone that far into coral morphology. However, taking some simple montipora, I would be interested to see if bacteria containing GFP could be taken into the cell DNA. This would probably be a simple experiment and there is plenty of this type of coral, both digitata and cap's. It would be especially easy to "break" the cap and digitata to create a similar infection point of entry as with the plants.
-Kyle
I am not sure how to isolate a particular part of the coral, I have just never gone that far into coral morphology. However, taking some simple montipora, I would be interested to see if bacteria containing GFP could be taken into the cell DNA. This would probably be a simple experiment and there is plenty of this type of coral, both digitata and cap's. It would be especially easy to "break" the cap and digitata to create a similar infection point of entry as with the plants.
-Kyle
This thread has some really fantastic ideas, however I'm just going to stick to Mendellian genetic selection to make my corals hardier, more colorful, and more resistant to pests, i.e. I'm just going to grow what I've got and further propagate the ones that I like the traits of, and leave to their own devices the ones that I don't like. I'm an economist, not a geneticist
