11th ICRS Abstract book - Nova Southeastern University

Poster Mini-Symposium 5: Functional Biology of Corals and Coral Symbiosis: Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Physiology
5.99
High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Analysis Of Photosynthetic Pigments
in Corals: An Existence Of A Variety Of Epiphytic And Endolithic Algae
Kazuhiro DAIGO* 1 , Yoshikatsu NAKANO 2 , Beatriz CASARETO 1 , Yoshimi
SUZUKI 1 , Yuzo SHIOI 1
1 Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan, 2 Ryukyus University, nago, Japan
Plant pigments of corals were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography
(HPLC) to investigate the secondary symbiotic algae of zooxanthella (dinoflagellate).
Coral samples were collected from Sesoko, Okinawa, Japan. HPLC analysis was
performed using a Waters Symmetry C8 column and a programmed binary gradient
elution with a photodiode array detector according to the method reported by Zapata et al.
(2000). The pigments were quantitatively analyzed and identified by comparison with the
standards. HPLC analysis achieved the separation of more than 60 peaks of the pigments
from more than 25 species of corals and about 30 pigment species of them were
identified. In addition to marker pigments of dinoflagellate, a variety of pigments
including chlorophyll d, chlorophyll b, chlorophyll c1, zeaxanthin, and lutein were
detected. After brushing of corals to remove epiphytic algae, the pigment composition in
corals was analyzed. However, most of algae were unable to remove. These findings
suggest that in addition to the pigments from dinoflagellate, some of the pigments are
probably due to epiphytic or endolithic algae growing in corals such as cyanobacteria,
green algae and diatoms. However, we had no information on the secondary symbiotic
algae in zooxznthella. From these facts, corals are not merely habitat of symbiotic
dinoflagellates, but also community of a various diversity of phytoplanktons. This further
means that corals having such a various diversity of production structure are not
negligible in terms of energy production in a whole coral ecosystem. It would be
necessary that we do not only investigate usual relationship between corals and
symbionidium, but also interrelationship between corals and its community composed of
a various phytoplanktons.
Zapata, N. et al. (2000) Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 195: 29-45.
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