Authors: T Teai J H Drollet JP Bianchini A Cambon P M V Martin
Publish Date: 1997/10/20
Volume: 16, Issue: 3, Pages: 169-176
Abstract
A survey of 23 species of scleractinians belonging to seven families and 8 genera collected from two different areas in French Polynesia showed that all specimens possessed between four and seven UVabsorbing compounds identified as mycosporinelike amino acids MAAs In all 11 different MAAs molecules were found of which two were previously unknown Palythine and mycosporineglycine were the most abundant MAAs in the corals With few exceptions most specimens of each species possessed the same pattern of MAAs Similarly species from the same genus also had very similar qualitative composition of MAAs although quantities of individuals MAAs varied from specimen to specimen This suggests that MAAs are ancient and evolutionarily well conserved
Keywords: