Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Laissue, P. P., Roberson, L., Gu, Y., Qian, C., & Smith, D. J. Long-term imaging of the photosensitive, reef-building coral Acropora muricata using light-sheet illumination. Scientific Reports, 10(1), (2020):10369, doi:10.1038/s41598-020-67144-w.
Description:
Coral reefs are in alarming decline due to climate emergency, pollution and other man-made disturbances. The numerous ecosystem services derived from coral reefs are underpinned by the growth and physical complexity of reef-forming corals. Our knowledge of their fundamental biology is limited by available technology. We need a better understanding of larval settlement and development, skeletogenesis, interactions with pathogens and symbionts, and how this biology interacts with environmental factors such as light exposure, temperature, and ocean acidification. We here focus on a fast-growing key coloniser, Acropora muricata (Linnaeus, 1758). To enable dynamic imaging of this photosensitive organism at different scales, we developed light-sheet illumination for fluorescence microscopy of small coral colonies. Our approach reveals live polyps in previously unseen detail. An imaging range for Acropora muricata with no measurable photodamage is defined based upon polyp expansion, coral tissue reaction, and photobleaching. We quantify polyp retraction as a photosensitive behavioural response and show coral tissue rupture at higher irradiance with blue light. The simple and flexible technique enables non-invasive continuous dynamic imaging of highly photosensitive organisms with sizes between 1 mm3 and 5 cm3, for eight hours, at high temporal resolution, on a scale from multiple polyps down to cellular resolution. This live imaging tool opens a new window into the dynamics of reef-building corals.
Description:
This work was made possible through a Royal Society Research Grant [RG120274], an innovation voucher from the University of Essex [DBF6000], a Royal Society Industry Fellowship [IF150018] and two Whitman Center Fellowships from the Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole, USA) to PPL. PPL would like to thank Russell Smart for aquarium maintenance and Tony Jordan for production of customised parts. PPL also thanks the open-source communities OpenSPIM and µManager for support, as well as Cairn Research, 89North, Nikon Instruments UK, Alex Gardiol from Olympus Keymed UK, and Scott Young, Matt Preston and Daniel Croucher from Teledyne Photometrics for equipment loans. PPL is grateful to Amy Gladfelter, Hari Shroff, Abhishek Kumar, Louis Kerr, Philip M. Mullineaux, Marino Exposito-Rodriguez and Jean A. Laissue for support and critical discussions.
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
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