Application of tree architectural models to reef-coral growth forms

Dauget, Jean-Marc

doi:10.1007/bf01986357

Cited by 27 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Architectural methods used to describe growth in tropical trees have been used to describe coral growth, including Fungia (Dauget, 1991). Fungiid corals provide an attractive experimental model because members of this family show considerable diversity in structure and developmental pattern.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aspects of Histocompatibility and Regeneration in the Solitary Reef Coral Fungia scutaria

Jokiel

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1994

The Biological Bulletin

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Discoid coralla of the solitary free-living reef coral Fungia scutaria were cut with a rock saw and rejoined in various paired combinations and orientations of autogeneic sections (self to self), isogeneic sections (clone-mate to clone-mate), and allogeneic sections (two different genotypes). Results of these experiments provide the first evidence of histocompatibility in a solitary coral. Autogeneic or isogeneic sections of coralla with one section containing a mouth were joined along cut edges. In all cases, fusion of tissues occurred within weeks, followed by skeletal fusion within months. However, autogeneic or isogeneic sections rejoined along the uncut edges did not fuse. Isogeneic pairings between two sections with mouths produced neither tissue/skeletal fusion nor cytotoxicity at the interface. Individual cut sections were allowed to regenerate. Sections containing the parent mouth did not develop new mouths. However, cut sections lacking a mouth always regenerated multiple mouths along the cut edge, but not along the uncut edge. Sections without mouths cut along a second line parallel to the first cut always regenerated mouths along the cut edge located closest to what had been the mouth area of the original corallum. The new mouths eventually developed into individual polyps.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aspects of Histocompatibility and Regeneration in the Solitary Reef Coral Fungia scutaria

Jokiel

Bigger

1994

The Biological Bulletin

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“…The morphogenesis of corals is driven by the interplay between genetic and environmental factors. It is thought that genetic factors regulate the branching patterns of corals, since in many corals the branches are added according to strict architectural rules (Dauget, 1991). In Stylophora pistillata such rules can generate nearly spherical colonies, that regenerate when damaged Loya (1976) (reviewed in Rinkevich, 2001Rinkevich, ,2002.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polyp oriented modelling of coral growth

Merks

Hoekstra

Kaandorp

et al. 2004

Journal of Theoretical Biology

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“…Despite the relative morphological simplicity of each module (at both, the polyp- and the branch-module levels), branching corals may generate complex architectures, at a third level of organization (the colony [18], [19]), that are either conserved or changed during the lifespan of any specific colony. Whereas some studies contend that coral plastic formation is driven entirely, or mainly, by environmental factors [12], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], other studies elucidate the importance of genetically predetermined traits in construction of colonial architecture [8], [18], [19], [25], [26], [27]. Branching coral species, while altering between plastic morphological traits, present characteristic species-specific architectural rules and branching patterns that are expressed in harmony between modules and levels of organization; all for the assemblage of final colonial landscape.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Plastic Can Phenotypic Plasticity Be? The Branching Coral Stylophora pistillata as a Model System

2007

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Phenotypic plasticity enables multicellular organisms to adjust morphologies and various life history traits to variable environmental challenges. Here, we elucidate fixed and plastic architectural rules for colony astogeny in multiple types of colonial ramets, propagated by cutting from genets of the branching coral Stylophora pistillata from Eilat, the Red Sea. We examined 16 morphometric parameters on 136 one-year old S. pistillata colonies (of seven genotypes), originating from small fragments belonging, each, to one of three single-branch types (single tips, start-up, and advanced bifurcating tips) or to structural preparative manipulations (representing a single or two growth axes). Experiments were guided by the rationale that in colonial forms, complexity of evolving phenotypic plasticity can be associated with a degree of structural modularity, where shapes are approached by erecting iterative growth patterns at different levels of coral-colony organization. Analyses revealed plastic morphometric characters at branch level, and predetermined morphometric traits at colony level (only single trait exhibited plasticity under extreme manipulation state). Therefore, under the experimental manipulations of this study, phenotypic plasticity in S. pistillata appears to be related to branch level of organization, whereas colony traits are controlled by predetermined genetic architectural rules. Each level of organization undergoes its own mode of astogeny. However, depending on the original ramet structure, the spherical 3-D colonial architecture in this species is orchestrated and assembled by both developmental trajectories at the branch level, and traits at the colony level of organization. In nature, branching colonial forms are often subjected to harsh environmental conditions that cause fragmentation of colony into ramets of different sizes and structures. Developmental traits that are plastic, responding to fragment structure and are not predetermine in controlling astogeny, allow formation of species-specific architecture product through integrated but variable developmental routes. This adaptive plasticity or regeneration is an efficient mechanism by which isolated fragments of branching coral species cope with external environmental forces.

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Application of tree architectural models to reef-coral growth forms

Cited by 27 publications

References 12 publications

Aspects of Histocompatibility and Regeneration in the Solitary Reef Coral Fungia scutaria

Aspects of Histocompatibility and Regeneration in the Solitary Reef Coral Fungia scutaria

Polyp oriented modelling of coral growth

How Plastic Can Phenotypic Plasticity Be? The Branching Coral Stylophora pistillata as a Model System

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