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Coral "Tumors" Growth anomalie=
s of
corals have been reported from reefs around the world and have been called
“tumors” because of their abnormal, bulbous shape. In general,
they are round, circumscribed, raised skeletal areas on the coral that di=
ffer
markedly in morphology from adjacent tissue, often having fewer polyps and
symbiotic zooxanthellae. They were first recorded in a dry specimen of the
deep-water coral Madrepora kauaiensis in 1965 and interpreted as a
tumor resulting from somatic budding that produced one single gigantic
abnormal polyp (Squires 1965). They have since been documented in more th=
an
40 species of scleractinians, 5 species of gorgonians, and 1 hydrozoan in=
both
the Caribbean and the Indo-Pacific. |
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Normal
coral tissue of Porites compressa |
Skeletal
Tissue anomalies of Porites compressa |
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It must be
cautioned that “tumor” is a misnomer. There is no evidence th=
at
these tissue anomalies are anything like tumors found in vertebrate anima=
ls.
The safest way to indicate these tissue anomalies is to call them
“skeletal tissue anomalies.” The aim of our
research is to characterize the skeletal, histological and cellular
composition of these skeletal tissue anomalies in corals. We are using
Porites compressa skeletal tissue anomalies from Coconut Island, Kaneohe =
Bay,
Hawaii as a model for our research. Data from our preliminary investigati=
on
documents significant differences in skeletal structure and
cellular/biochemical behavior. |
![3D"http://haereticus-lab.org/P1010236.JPG"](3D"Coraltumor_files/image002.jpg")
![3D"http://haereticus-lab.org/P1010246.JPG"](3D"Coraltumor_files/image004.jpg")
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Differences in the expression of =
four |
![3D"http://haereticus-lab.org/Hyperplasia-ELISa-figure.JPG"](3D"Coraltumor_files/image006.jpg")