Biological/Chemical identification of coral

[discuspro]

I keep having this wonderful thought that some day soon many of the coral we trade will have their DNA cataloged or partially identified. If not DNA cataloged something else more accurate at identifying coral than just growth pattern and color. If we don't already have this in the works I think it should be a very important focus. For hobbyists it will give a positive identifier for high dollar stuff like Tyree purple monster, etc so that someone doesn't pay $300 for a nicely colored A. granulosa that looks like pm. For ecologists it would help identify corals that may be in danger of extinction or something, surely there is much more I'm not thinking of at the moment. For science research it would also allow for easier replication and further development of previous research.

Besides it all it would be cool to know EXACTLY what you have.

Maybe there is stuff like this already and I'm just out of the loop?

[GaryP]

I know there has been some discussion of it. I'm sure the problem is funding. Apparently there is some DNA analysis of corals going on because my understanding is that the glofish zebra that came onto the market last year contained a recombinant gene from a coral to give it the pigment that creates its biofluorescent effect.

[Ram_Puppy]

sounds incredibly expensive, and further off than you probably think... your talking about mapping the DNA of hundreds of corals, and not just individual species, but color sports and growth patterns... that is an incredible feat that I doubt is in the hobbies future anytime soon. :(

if memory serves, right now the best way to identify a coral accurately is to study it's skeleton, of course, that has poor implications for the coral. :(

[GaryP]

Actually, once you get a few done you can find what are call conserved regions. These are areas that are basically identical between most corals. The unique areas can then be concentrated on that are markers for each species.

This is basically how parentage is determined in humans, by concentrating on areas that have a lot of variability between individuals.