Can corals transfer colors?

[John3]

I have a pipe organ coral that was completely white when I bought it. More recently one section of the polyps now have a green fluorescence. This coral fell a month or so back and landed on the green Hollywood stunner chalice also seen in this picture. The polyps in this area just started recovering and I’m noticing the color change.

Do you think that has anything to do with it or do you think the pipe coral was going to gain the green flourecense anyway as it matured?

 

[DSC reef]

This is very interesting to see. I honestly have no clue if fluorescent pigments can be transferred. @Dana Riddle Have you seen this before? #reefsquad

 

[Crabs McJones]

This is very interesting to see. I honestly have no clue if fluorescent pigments can be transferred. @Dana Riddle Have you seen this before? #reefsquad

Same, not a clue. Following along.

 

[DSC reef]

Same, not a clue. Following along.

Very cool though, I'm intrigued!

 

[samnaz]

I too am intrigued...

 

[Dana Riddle]

This is very interesting to see. I honestly have no clue if fluorescent pigments can be transferred. @Dana Riddle Have you seen this before? #reefsquad

At first glance, I don't think transfer is possible. Fluorescent proteins are produced by the coral animal and it must be genetically predisposed to make them. We know that the gene to make these colorful proteins can be spliced into another animal's DNA (Glo-Fish are an excellent example.) So, mere contact between animals and a transfer of the ability to make these proteins seems remote.

 

[Zack K]

This is very interesting to see. I honestly have no clue if fluorescent pigments can be transferred. @Dana Riddle Have you seen this before? #reefsquad

At first glance, I don't think transfer is possible. Fluorescent proteins are produced by the coral animal and it must be genetically predisposed to make them. We know that the gene to make these colorful proteins can be spliced into another animal's DNA (Glo-Fish are an excellent example.) So, mere contact between animals and a transfer of the ability to make these proteins seems remote.

100% agree. Their is a good chance that the pipe coral was green prior to purchase.

 

[DSC reef]

Good to know and thanks for responding @Dana Riddle. Just an odd coincidence that got my attention disclaimer: don't go throwing your softies into your chalices to change the colors

 

[John3]

I was thinking it was more likely a natural change but it was strange on the timing. I got this as a tiny frag in March and it had maybe 10 polyps then and they were all white. As it grew all the new polyps were white. When it fell that area of the coral closed up and some of the polyps even died as you can see the small open areas. It was closed up for maybe a month but when it did open the polyps are now showing the green floresence. The other areas of the coral have remained white so far. I’m really hoping the whole thing takes on the green coloring as it looks nice.

 

[Jose Mayo]

Corals of different species, as far as is known (yet), do not transfer the ability to produce fluorescent proteins, but ... transfer zooxanthelas, and of these, some exhibit high fluorescence in their photosynthetic pigments, especially chlorophyll, a green pigment.

If a bleached coral (which has lost its zooxanthellae) is placed in proximity to another zooxanthellate coral, zooxanthellae may migrate from one coral to another, thus "transferring" the fluorescence, apparently.

Best regards

 

[JonB]

I know I am completely new to reef2reef but this post caught my eye (currently, I can't have a tank but I can live vicariously through many of you all and your tanks!). I have some experience working with GFPs (however mainly in bacteria) and wanted to agree with what was stated above and also note that stress can cause upregulation of GFP in coral
("Coral Fluorescent Proteins as Antioxidants", Palmer et al, 2009).
Although physically falling on to the other coral does not exactly match the stress this paper talks about, there could be a correlation. Perhaps the actual stress or immune response of the coral caused this upregulation. Also, although hard to tell, the shade of green is not the same indicating that horizontal transfer probably did not happen. I would love to hear any other opinion on this and am in no way saying this is definitely what happened, but possibly could be an explanation.