Corals native to Caribbean waters may have broken a basic tenet of biology. When a mutation occurs in the body cells of nearly any animal on Earth, it’s not passed on to offspring via reproductive cells. But these corals do pass on such mutations, according to a new study published in Science Advances yesterday (August 31).
The finding points to a new source of genetic variation in coral that may hasten the rate at which these organisms evolve and adapt.
“It’s the first report of somatic mutations being passed [via reproductive cells] in an animal, as far as I can tell,” says Daniel Schoen, an evolutionary biologist at McGill University who was not involved in the study. “I’m not sure they make that claim, but I haven’t seen that before in the literature.”
Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata), found in reefs throughout the Caribbean coast, grows in long, fractal-like branches that ...
