14 December 2011 - US Scientists have built a frozen repository for the embryonic cells and coral sperm for the Great Barrier Reef, the said work is the possible solution to restore the coral species and diversify its population.
According to Mary Hagedorn a Marine Biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute or SCBI “It turns out we can produce significant numbers of developing larvae using the thawed sperm and that those larvae actually settle. This is a huge milestone for us because if the larvae couldn’t metamorphose and settle, we wouldn’t be able to successfully use the bank for conservation efforts which is the driving force behind this important research.” Coral settling is technically the process in which a bowling pin-shaped coral larva metamorphoses into a polyp baby coral.
The frozen banks include two of the reef-building species of coral such as: Acropora Millepora and Acropora Tenuis, both of these reside in long-term storage located in the Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, Australia.
The Marine Biologist Mary Hagedorn has successfully applied this technology to the reefs in both Hawaii and Caribbean. The banked cells are in a stasis and the researchers can defrost the frozen material in 50 to over a thousand years from now. If this procedure is done properly over time, researchers can also rear samples of the frozen material and if needed place it back into the ecosystem to generate new genes into the natural populations and this will help enhance the viability and health of the wild stocks.
This successful and innovative research is the result of a partnership between the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, Australian Institute of Marine Science and Monash University.
The scientist’s next focus after the success of using the frozen sperm from coral to fertilize fresh coral eggs is the development of techniques to use frozen coral embryonic cells to help with the restoration of coral population. In the coming January of next year, Hagedorn and her team will focus on the culturing of frozen embryonic cells and find out how long they can live.
Hagedorn has added “Right now there are no tools to help address some of the diseases most devastating to the reef. If we can grow embryonic cells and keep them alive, this technology could be important in battling those coral diseases.”
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