Frag donations for a coral bleaching study

[amirahj]

Hello!
I'm Amirah. I'm new here. I am a graduate student at Georgia State University and I'm starting a research study on coral bleaching. I'm wondering if anyone here can help with donations of corals to start off the project. Specifically I'm looking for Acropora species. If you can help please let me know!

Thank you,
Amirah Hurst

 

[Trizzino]

What size corals are you looking for?

 

[Adam]

Hello!
I'm Amirah. I'm new here. I am a graduate student at Georgia State University and I'm starting a research study on coral bleaching. I'm wondering if anyone here can help with donations of corals to start off the project. Specifically I'm looking for Acropora species. If you can help please let me know!

Thank you,
Amirah Hurst

Hello Amirah,

Welcome to ARC.

Could you give us some information about the study and what specific information you're looking to uncover from the results? Do you have any papers or links you can share with us?

 

[1mbrews8]

Are you looking for alive ones? Or already bleached/dead ones lol!?!? I have plenty of the 2nd kind )

 

[amirahj]

Hello Amirah,

Welcome to ARC.

Could you give us some information about the study and what specific information you're looking to uncover from the results? Do you have any papers or links you can share with us?

Hi Adam!
So, the aim of this project is to use synthetic biology to prevent coral bleaching. Since bleaching events involve the break down of algae-coral symbiosis due to heat stress, we are looking to introduce genes into the DNA of the symbiotic algae that may help them endure warmer water temps. This will hopefully help them to remain on the coral even with rising temperatures. We are working on the algae now but we want to have coral to test the engineered algae on the coral in heat stress challenges. Our first steps are to get coral and make sure we can keep a lab culture of them alive (no crashes) and then attempt to bleach them. Then use our engineered algae and see if we have successfully transformed them with a gene that gives them heat tolerance. We are looking specifically for Acropora species to start with. Some papers we are referencing are:

• https://www.nature.com/articles/srep01421
• https://elifesciences.org/articles/45292

Thank you for taking an interest!

 

[amirahj]

Are you looking for alive ones? Or already bleached/dead ones lol!?!? I have plenty of the 2nd kind )

Preferably alive and unbleached if possible, lol.

 

[Adam]

Hi Adam!
So, the aim of this project is to use synthetic biology to prevent coral bleaching. Since bleaching events involve the break down of algae-coral symbiosis due to heat stress, we are looking to introduce genes into the DNA of the symbiotic algae that may help them endure warmer water temps. This will hopefully help them to remain on the coral even with rising temperatures. We are working on the algae now but we want to have coral to test the engineered algae on the coral in heat stress challenges. Our first steps are to get coral and make sure we can keep a lab culture of them alive (no crashes) and then attempt to bleach them. Then use our engineered algae and see if we have successfully transformed them with a gene that gives them heat tolerance. We are looking specifically for Acropora species to start with. Some papers we are referencing are:

• https://www.nature.com/articles/srep01421
• https://elifesciences.org/articles/45292

Thank you for taking an interest!

Excellent.

If the club worked out some type of sponsoring, like working with a couple of the larger coral vendors to do a purchase at a lower price, would you and/or people leading the study be willing to do some presentations for the club at some of our monthly meetings? Initially outline the studies goals and later report back on the progress.

 

[amirahj]

What size corals are you looking for?

They don't need to be very large. Smaller frag sizes will do.

 

[amirahj]

Excellent.

If the club worked out some type of sponsoring, like working with a couple of the larger coral vendors to do a purchase at a lower price, would you and/or people leading the study be willing to do some presentations for the club at some of our monthly meetings? Initially outline the studies goals and later report back on the progress.

Yes! That sounds great! How do we get started?

 

[Trizzino]

@amirahj I have a Starry Night acro colony that I can trim and donate some to your study. It is a hardy acro and grows quickly. Only condition is create a Study Thread and keep us updated

 

[urbanknight]

I too have a starry night acro colony that I would donate. Same conditions as @trizzino. I have already taken a couple of frags from it and it's ready to go.

 

[amirahj]

I too have a starry night acro colony that I would donate. Same conditions as @trizzino. I have already taken a couple of frags from it and it's ready to go.

yes please!

 

[amirahj]

I too have a starry night acro colony that I would donate. Same conditions as @trizzino. I have already taken a couple of frags from it and it's ready to go.

yes, please!

 

[amirahj]

@amirahj I have a Starry Night acro colony that I can trim and donate some to your study. It is a hardy acro and grows quickly. Only condition is create a Study Thread and keep us updated

yes, please!