Biomineralisation in corals: autophagy and environmental effects role (BioCorAuE).

biomineralisation
biomineralisation

Corals are major ecological reserves and provide important ecosystem services to humans. Through the process of biomineralization, they are the basis for building coral reefs. These corals are however victims of climate change including acidification and the increase in ocean temperature. Numerous field and laboratory studies have shown that these stresses affect their biomineralization.
The work of the CSM's Coral Physiology team has made it possible to dissect some of the mechanisms involved in the response to stress. However, many avenues remain to be explored, in particular the one of autophagy, which is a major catabolic process, highly conserved during evolution. This mechanism, which allows the degradation of damaged cellular material, is stimulated by different types of stress. 


The work of the MATOs team has also shown that autophagy plays a major role in the process of mineralization by bone cells.

To date, a recent transcriptomic study suggests that disease-resistant coral species are able to activate the autophagic pathway but no study considers the potential link between autophagy, biomineralization and environment in corals.
The aim of this project is to develop tools for analyzing autophagy in coral in order to study the participation of this process in biomineralization and resistance to various environmental stresses.

The implementation of this project was made possible by the articulation between the Scientific Center of Monaco (CSM) and the Transporters, Imaging and Radiotherapy in Oncology Laboratory - Biological Mechanisms of Bone Tissue Alterations (TIRO-MATOs) of the University Côte d’Azur.

Teams involved in the "BioCorAuE" project: 


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