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RESEARCH FRONT

Cryobiology: principles, species conservation and benefits for coral reefs

Mary Hagedorn A B C and Virginia L. Carter A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Center for Species Survival, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute–National Zoological Park, Front Royal, VA 22630, USA.

B Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii, Kaneohe, HI 96744, USA.

C Corresponding author. Email: hagedornm@si.edu

Reproduction, Fertility and Development 28(8) 1049-1060 https://doi.org/10.1071/RD16082
Submitted: 15 February 2016  Accepted: 29 April 2016   Published: 17 June 2016

Abstract

Coral reefs are some of the oldest, most diverse and valuable ecosystems on Earth because they can support one-quarter of all marine life in our oceans. Despite their importance, the world’s coral reefs continue to be degraded at unprecedented rates by local and global threats that are warming and creating a more acidic ocean. This paper explores the reproductive challenges of coral for ex situ conservation, using IVF and cryopreservation, and our practical biobanking methods. Coral present challenges for cryopreservation because their reproductive period is often limited to a few nights yearly, they are mostly hermaphrodites with diverse modes of reproduction, including asexual reproduction (i.e. fragmentation and parthenogenesis) and sexual reproduction (i.e. self- and cross-fertilisation) and they express physiological toxins that can inhibit cryopreservation. We have banked spermatozoa from 12 coral species using the same field-hardy methods and have created new coral with thawed spermatozoa. In addition, we describe the cryopreservation of coral symbionts, whose physiology only permits the highest success seasonally. As part of a multidisciplinary conservation strategy, these collections may provide a major hedge against extinction for corals facing the damaging effects of climate change and loss of genetic diversity, and promise to help offset threats to our reefs worldwide.

Additional keywords: cryopreservation, spermatozoa, Symbiodinium.


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