Different Growth Modes Of Coral Skeletons Revealed By Crystal Orientation Map

ORAL

Abstract

Coral skeletons were assumed based on morphology to grow spherulitically, that is, as radially distributed acicular aragonite (CaCO3) crystals, with their c-axes radiating from points. Recently we showed with Polarization-dependent Imaging Contrast (PIC) maps [1,2] that Stylophora pistillata (Sp) coral skeleton indeed grow spherulitically [3,4]. Is this true for other species? We tested Balanophyllia europaea (Be) and found that Be and Sp differ: Sp has only spherulites, whereas Be has spherulites and randomly oriented equant crystals, we named “sprinkles”. We show here that sprinkles grow slowly, and spherulites grow rapidly, but both grow by particle attachment [6], and are faster than ion-by-ion aragonite growth. We propose that a new class of proteins exists, which we named crystal Growth Rate Influencing Proteins (GRIPs), based on the observation in PIC maps that they make crystals grow faster or slower.
1. PUPA Gilbert et al. PNAS 108, 11350, 2011
2. PUPA Gilbert et al. EPSL 460, 281, 2017
3. C-Y Sun et al. ACS Nano 11, 6612, 2017
4. T Mass et al. PNAS 114, E7670, 2017
5. L Pasquini et al. J R Soc Interface 12, 20150168, 2015
6. De Yoreo et al. Science 349, aaa6760, 2015

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Presenters

  • Chang-Yu Sun

    Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Physics, Chemistry, Geoscience, Univ of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Authors

  • Chang-Yu Sun

    Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Physics, Chemistry, Geoscience, Univ of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • Cayla Stifler

    Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Physics, Chemistry, Geoscience, Univ of Wisconsin

  • Matthew Marcus

    Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Tali Mass

    Marine Biology Department, University of Haifa

  • Stefano Goffredo

    Marine Science Group, Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna

  • Giuseppe Falini

    Department of Chemistry “Giacomo Ciamician”, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna

  • Pupa Gilbert

    Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Geoscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Physics, Chemistry, Geoscience, Univ of Wisconsin, Departments of Chemistry, Materials Science, and Geoscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Univ of Wisconsin, Madison