The skeletome of the red coral Corallium rubrum indicates an independent evolution of biomineralization process in octocorals

by Nathalie Le Roy, Ganot Philippe, Manuel Aranda, Tambutté Sylvie, Allemand Denis
Journal Year: 2021 ISSN: 2730-7182 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-020-01734-0

Bibliography

Le Roy, N., Ganot, P., Aranda, M. et al. The skeletome of the red coral Corallium rubrum indicates an independent evolution of biomineralization process in octocorals. BMC Ecol Evo 21, 1 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-020-01734-0

Abstract

The process of calcium carbonate biomineralization has arisen multiple times during metazoan evolution. In the phylum Cnidaria, biomineralization has mostly been studied in the subclass Hexacorallia (i.e. stony corals) in comparison to the subclass Octocorallia (i.e. red corals); the two diverged approximately 600 million years ago. The precious Mediterranean red coral, Corallium rubrum, is an octocorallian species, which produces two distinct high-magnesium calcite biominerals, the axial skeleton and the sclerites. In order to gain insight into the red coral biomineralization process and cnidarian biomineralization evolution, we studied the protein repertoire forming the organic matrix (OM) of its two biominerals.

Keywords

red coral Biomineralization octocorals skeltome mass spectrometry Transcriptomics