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Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons

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Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology

2017

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Full-Text Articles in Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

The Effects Of Thermal Stress On Fluorescent Protein Expression In An Indo-Pacific Scleractinian Coral Species, Acropora Tenuis, Anna Knochel Jan 2017

The Effects Of Thermal Stress On Fluorescent Protein Expression In An Indo-Pacific Scleractinian Coral Species, Acropora Tenuis, Anna Knochel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The scleractinian coral species that so heavily define tropical coral reefs are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic global warming. Rising sea surface temperatures in combination with light stress causes the photosynthetic breakdown of the coral’s algal symbiont, Symbiodinium. Corals have developed a number of physiological responses to handle acute stressors, such as the production of ultraviolet-protecting amino acids, heat shock proteins, the ability to shift symbionts, and the production of fluorescent proteins. The latter has been thought to play a photoprotective role in the coral holobiont, and studies have shown evidence that corals orient these pigments to divert harmful light away …