Reyes-Bermudez, A., and Miller, D.J. (2009) In vitro culture of cells derived from larvae of the staghorn coral Acropora millepora. Coral Reefs, 28 (4). pp. 859-864.

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Abstract

Previous attempts to culture cells from corals or other cnidarians have been unsuccessful. These efforts have, however, generally made use of adult tissue as starting material. Early developmental stages are potentially more appropriate for the initiation of cell cultures, as the expectation is that a greater proportion of the cell population is undifferentiated and may have the intrinsic ability of unlimited cell renewal. To explore this idea, cell cultures were initiated from five key stages of coral development, and the presence of coral cells monitored by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using coral-specific primers. After 4 weeks, semi-quantitative PCR implied that coral cells were better represented in cultures initiated from planulae than in those derived from earlier developmental stages. Coral cells were detected in cultures initiated from planulae for up to 10 weeks, but after this time, extensive contamination by the protist Thraustochytrium sp. was observed.

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