Microscope allows gentle, continuous imaging of light-sensitive corals


Date:
June 30, 2020
Source:
Marine Biological Laboratory
Summary:
Many corals are sensitive to bright light, so capturing their
dynamics with traditional microscopes is a challenge. To work around
their photosensitivity, researchers developed a custom light-sheet
microscope (the L-SPI) that allows gentle, non-invasive observation
of corals and their polyps in detail over eight continuous hours,
at high resolution.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Corals are "part animal, part plant, and part rock -- and difficult to
figure out, despite being studied for centuries," says Philippe Laissue
of University of Essex, a Whitman Scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory. Many corals are sensitive to bright light, so capturing
their dynamics with traditional microscopes is a challenge.


==========================================================================
To work around their photosensitivity, Laissue developed a custom
light-sheet microscope (the L-SPI) that allows gentle, non-invasive
observation of corals and their polyps in detail over eight continuous
hours, at high resolution. He and his colleagues, including MBL Associate Scientist and coral biologist Loretta Roberson, published their findings
this week in Scientific Reports.

Coral reefs, made up of millions of tiny units called polyps,
are extremely important ecosystems, both for marine life and for
humans. They harbor thousands of marine species, providing food and
economic support for hundreds of millions of people. They also protect
coasts from waves and floods, and hold great potential for pharmaceutical
and biotechnological discovery.

But more than half of the world's coral reefs are in severe
decline. Climate change and other human influences are gravely threatening their survival. As ocean temperatures rise, coral bleaching is afflicting
reefs worldwide. In coral bleaching, corals expel their symbiotic algae
and become more susceptible to death.

"The L-SPI opens a window on the interactions and relationship between
the coral host, the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, and the
calcium carbonate skeleton they build in real time," Roberson says. "We
can now track the fate of the algae during [coral] bleaching as well as
during initiation of the symbiosis." Roberson is also using Laissue's
imaging technology to measure damage to corals from "bioeroders" --
biological agents like algae and sponges that break down a coral's
skeleton, a problem exacerbated by ocean acidification and increasing
water temperatures.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Marine_Biological_Laboratory. Original written by Diana Kenney. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Pierre Philippe Laissue, Loretta Roberson, Yan Gu, Chen Qian,
David J.

Smith. Long-term imaging of the photosensitive, reef-building
coral Acropora muricata using light-sheet illumination. Scientific
Reports, 2020; 10 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-67144-w ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200630161548.htm

--- up 23 weeks, 2 hours, 39 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1337:3/111)