title: In vivoimaging of coral tissue and skeleton with optical coherence tomography.
abstract: Application of optical coherence tomography (OCT) forin vivoimaging of tissue and skeleton structure of intact living corals enabled the non-invasive visualization of coral tissue layers (endoderm versus ectoderm), skeletal cavities and special structures such as mesenterial filaments and mucus release from intact living corals. Coral host chromatophores containing green fluorescent protein-like pigment granules appeared hyper-reflective to near-infrared radiation allowing for excellent optical contrast in OCT and a rapid characterization of chromatophore size, distribution and abundance.In vivotissue plasticity could be quantified by the linear contraction velocity of coral tissues upon illumination resulting in dynamic changes in the live coral tissue surface area, which varied by a factor of 2 between the contracted and expanded state of a coral. Our study provides a novel view on thein vivoorganization of coral tissue and skeleton and highlights the importance of microstructural dynamics for coral ecophysiology.
authors.affiliation: Marine Biological Section, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Strandpromenaden 5, Helsingør 3000, Denmark dw527@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4834-8981
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wangpraseurt
authors.affiliation: Marine Biological Section, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Strandpromenaden 5, Helsingør 3000, Denmark.
authors.forename: Camilla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wentzel
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Oregon Health and Science University, 3303 SW Bond Avenue, Portland, OR 97239, USA.
authors.forename: Steven L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Jacques
authors.affiliation: Engler-Bunte Institute, Chair of Water Chemistry and Water Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Engler-Bunte-Ring 1, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.affiliation: Marine Biological Section, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Strandpromenaden 5, Helsingør 3000, Denmark mkuhl@bio.ku.dk.|Climate Change Cluster, University of Technology Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, Sydney, New South Wales 2007, Australia.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1792-4790
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kühl
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D002856:Chromatophores / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence
keywords: bioimaging; coral tissue; green fluorescent protein; microstructure; optical coherence tomography