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2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Understanding the biological function of fluorescent proteins in corals

Research Project

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Project/Area Number 18K19240
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Review Section Medium-sized Section 40:Forestry and forest products science, applied aquatic science, and related fields
Research InstitutionNational Institute for Basic Biology

Principal Investigator

Takahashi Shunichi  基礎生物学研究所, 環境光生物学研究部門, 准教授 (80620153)

Project Period (FY) 2018-06-29 – 2021-03-31
Keywordsサンゴ / 蛍光 / プランクトン / 走光性 / 捕食
Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project studied the physiological significance of coral’s fluorescence proteins and achieved two important outcomes. (1) The green fluorescence emitted by coral’s green fluorescence proteins (GFP) attracts free-living zooxanthellae (symbiotic dinoflagellates) due to the combination of negative phototaxis towards the light source and positive phototaxis towards the green fluorescence (Aihara et al. 2019 PNAS). (2) Cultured copepods and sampled plankton from coral reefs both show positive phototaxis towards light from the green region of the light spectrum but with no negative phototaxis observed to any colored light at all light intensities tested. Therefore, in contrast to symbiotic dinoflagellates, copepods and plankton were not attracted by coral’s green fluorescence when in the presence of a green fluorescence-inducing light source.

Free Research Field

海洋生物学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

サンゴの緑色蛍光タンパク質(GFP)由来の緑色蛍光が、共生する褐虫藻の誘引に働くことが示された。これは、褐虫藻の光源(自然界では太陽光)に対する負の走光性と、サンゴ緑色蛍光に対する正の走光性に起因する。これは、サンゴの蛍光が、褐虫藻の誘引に働くことを実験的に示した初めての研究結果である。この成果は、論文として国際誌の米国科学アカデミー紀要(Aihara et al. 2019 PNAS)に発表した。また、この成果は、様々なメディア(新聞、ニュース、ネットニュース)で紹介された。

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Published: 2022-01-27  

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