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Vol. 51 No. 8, 2012
Sperm of the Solitary Coral Ctenactis
echinata Exhibit Longer Telomeres than that of Somatic Tissues
Michiko
C. Ojimi1,*, Yossi Loya2, and Michio Hidaka1
1Department
of Chemistry, Biology and Marine Science, Faculty of Science, Univ. of
the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan
2Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv Univ., Tel Aviv
69978, Israel
Michiko C. Ojimi, Yossi Loya, and Michio
Hidaka (2012) Because many corals reproduce asexually through
regeneration from fragments, establishing a simple relationship between
the age and size of a coral is problematic. Here, we attempted to test
the coral telomere length as an indicator of age and senescence,
because telomere shortening occurs during cell division. We examined
the association between the size (weight) of a coral and the average
length of its telomeres as determined by single telomere length
analysis (STELA) products. We chose as our study species the solitary
coral Ctenactis echinata, which is unlikely to
reproduce via fragmentation and has never been observed to reproduce
asexually via budding. We amplified DNA fragments containing part of a
telomere with part of the subtelomeric region using a dualsuppression
PCR, and determined DNA sequences of subtelomeric regions in order to
design chromosomespecific primers for the STELA. The average length of
STELA products was calculated from densitometric data, and it was
plotted against the weight of the coral. Although sperm exhibited a
longer telomere length than that of somatic tissues, there was no
significant relationship between the average length of the STELA
products and the weight of individuals. These results suggest that
telomere shortening occurs during early development in this solitary
coral. Moreover, our findings are expected to provide a genetic basis
for coral aging. Future research on the range of telomere changes
occurring in this coral would further our understanding of how age and
size are related.
Key words: Ageing, Coral, Lifespan, Senescence.
*Correspondence: Tel: 81-98-8958547. Fax: 81-98-8958576.
E-mail:m.c.ojimi@gmail.com
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