WASHINGTON, OCT 19 (AP): Scientists think they may have found out how reef-building corals manage to coordinate their sex lives in moonlight.
In late spring it is reef madness as corals release sperm and eggs into the water for a few nights after a full moon.
Researchers led by Oren Levy of the Centre for Marine Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia, studied corals on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
They report in Friday's issue of the journal Science that while corals do not have eyes they are able to sense changes in light - especially blue light - and respond to them.
The corals contain ancient proteins called cryptochromes which react to light. Cryptochromes have also been found in mammals and insects where they effect the circadian clock that regulates the daily rhythms of life.
This finding indicates that the basic means used by mammals today to regulate daily patterns was in use at the beginnings of multicellular animals.
Moonlight inspires reef-building corals to spawning
FE Team | Published: October 20, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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