Ocean University, which has been invested in coral restoration research for 25 years, published major findings in coral reproduction research on the 25th. They found a pink fluorescent protein that protects the DNA of oocytes in the ovaries in kidney-shaped true leaf corals, which is used to help the coral reproduce and restore in the future.
Global warming is becoming more and more serious, the number of corals is decreasing year by year, the National Taiwan Ocean University, which has been invested in coral restoration research for 25 years, was published by president Zhang Qingfengli's team on the 25th. They found a pink fluorescent protein that protects coral eggs in kidney-shaped true leaf corals, and speculated that this pink fluorescent protein would protect the DNA of oocytes in the ovaries, which would help the reproduction and restoration of corals in the future.
President Zhang Qingfeng said that under the global warming, corals are facing a major crisis, corals are decreasing, in order to solve this problem, the research team has long invested in the study of kidney-shaped true leaf corals. In the past 30 years, there are about 1,200 species of stone corals in the world, and about 1/3 of the species of stone corals have sexual reproduction (collective egg laying and sperm and egg formation process), which have been investigated and studied, and so far a lot of knowledge of sexual reproduction has been accumulated. However, it is little known which genes and protein molecules are involved in the process of sexual reproduction of corals, so the Haida research team used the perspective of molecular biology to explore the mechanism of coral sexual reproduction.
Ocean University said that every year in the lunar calendar in the third and fourth months of the southern waters of Taiwan will appear coral collective ovulation of the grand scene, have caused the country to pay great attention to this ecological event, in the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education funding subsidies, the Department of Aquaculture Professor Zhang Qingfeng and the Assistant Professor of the Institute of Marine Environment and Ecology Zhi Mingxin also composed of coral research team, into the study of coral reproduction, recently found in the female coral body a pink fluorescent protein, related to coral egg generation, with antioxidant ability can protect coral egg development. The results of this research have great academic and application value for the reproduction and restoration of corals.
President Zhang said that in order to find genes related to sexual reproduction in female corals, Assistant Professor Zhimingxin and students compared the gene populations (genes with performance functions) in the two groups of corals during the non-breeding season and the breeding season to find the red fluorescent protein gene. At the same time, it was found that the oocytes of the female coral ovaries during the breeding season had a strong pink glow, and this pink fluorescent protein was detected in early oocytes to late mature oocytes, which showed that pink fluorescent protein was related to egg generation, and the embryos of corals also had pink fluorescent performance after fertilization.
In addition, the research team further confirmed the function of pink fluorescent protein and found that it has antioxidant power. Therefore, it is speculated that this pink fluorescent protein will protect the DNA, yolk protein and lipids of oocytes in the ovaries from oxidation, and pink fluorescent protein also plays a role in protecting the DNA and lipids in the embryo from oxidation during embryonic development.
President Zhang Qingfeng stressed that the research team has long been committed to the basic scientific research of coral sexual reproduction, and so far there have been many reproductive-related research results leading the world, such as the marker genes of germ cells can know the location of germ cell development in corals, prove the location of yolk protein formation, etc. In the future, the research team will continue to study in this direction, and use these discovered knowledge to enable corals to grow in captivity, while germ cells can mature and emit sperm and eggs. And to allow the fertilized egg to develop, there is a chance to artificially breed corals in the future, and release and incubate the coral larvae to increase the number of coral populations, or provide materials for other coral researchers to experiment, without the need to destroy coral reefs and promote the restoration of coral reefs.