| Budget Amount *help |
¥24,050,000 (Direct Cost: ¥18,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥5,550,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥6,110,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,410,000)
Fiscal Year 2018: ¥6,240,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,440,000)
Fiscal Year 2017: ¥11,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥9,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,700,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Although coral skeletons generally comprise aragonite crystals, changes in the molar Mg/Ca ratio (mMg/Ca) in seawater result in the incorporation of calcite crystals. Previous studies suggested that aragonitic scleractinian corals controlled skeletal formation biologically under low mMg/Ca conditions at higher temperature. The mechanism of formation of aragonite and calcite crystals in coral skeletons was therefore investigated by RNA-seq analysis, using early growth stage calcite and aragonite-based corals. As a result, 1287 genes were up-regulated and 748 down-regulated in calcite-based corals. In particular, 68 skeletogenesis-related genes were detected as up-regulated, and 6 genes down-regulated in low-Mg/Ca conditions. It is thought that corals actively cause the skeletal organic matrix to construct an aragonite skeleton in low-Mg/Ca conditions. These results suggest that the composition of these proteins could be a key factor in the selective formation of aragonite or calcite.
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