Locally Accelerated Growth Is Part of the Innate Immune Response and Repair Mechanisms

Locally accelerated growth is part of the innate immune response and repair mechanisms in reef-building corals as detected by green fluorescent protein (GFP)-like pigments

Electronic Supplementary Material

EMS Figure Legends

EMS Figure 1: Amino acid sequence of the PCNA fragments utilized for RT-PCR analysis of gene expression in M. foliosa and A. pulchra. An alignment of the available sequences from five species is displayed. The ncbi accession numbers of the sequences are: Acroporamillepora GO000541, Acropora pulchra (JQ648647, this study), Montipora foliosa (JQ648648, this study), Eriocheir sinensis ACK58408, Homo sapiens CAG38740, Xenopuslaevis NP_001081012, Hydra magnipapillata XP_002164838. The percentage of identical amino acids of each sequence compared to that of A. millepora is shown in brackets next to the sequence name. Highly conserved residues are shaded.

ESM Figure 2: Daylight image of growing colony margins of different colour morphs of M.foliosa. (a) The left coral (pigmented morph) is characterized by the strong expression of the purple chromoprotein mfol577 in the growth zones that is not visible in the non-pigmented morph on the right. (b) In both morphs, tissue extracts of the growing margins show an increased phenoloxidase (PO) activity compared to extracts of tissue from inner areas of the colonies. The graph shows average and standard deviation of triplicate measurements.

ESM Figure 3: Pink-blue syndrome in damaged corals in the Gulf of Eilat (northern Red Sea). (a) Montipora sp., (b-d) Acropora sp., (e-f) Astreopora sp.

ESM Figure 4: Time course of tissue regeneration in Acropora polystoma. The colony was photographed under a microscope with daylight settings (upper row) and in the fluorescence mode using the GFP Plus filter set (lower row). The wound area was imaged immediately after inflicting damage (day 0) and monitored over a period of 14 days.

ESM Figure 5: Increased red fluorescence after mechanical damage in P. lobata. Mechanical stress was applied to P. lobata by scratching an X-shaped mark (highlighted by white arrows) in the surface of the living coral. Photographs show the regenerating tissue three weeks after the damage. The left image was acquired under the microscope using white light illumination. The distribution of fluorescent proteins plobFP490 and plobFP610 (right image) was documented with a GFP-plus filter set.

ESM Figure 6: Increase expression of red fluorescence proteins Porites sp. of Gulf of Eilat (northern Red Sea). Tissue swelling and nodule formation are associated with the accumulation of red fluorescent proteins in the presence of Coralliophila sp. (a) and an unidentified organism/object (b). Enhanced expression of red fluorescent proteins around an epibiont tube and a tissue lesion (c-d).