Bidirectional Sex Change In Mushroom Stony Corals

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 10 Jul 2008 - 0:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

We describe for the first time sex change occurring in corals. This includes a novel mode of bidirectional (repetitive) sex change, which resembles that found in plants that display labile sexuality in response to environmental and/or energetic constraints.

We point out some intriguing analogies between the studied mushroom corals to plants and posit that the sex change in coral individuals enhances their reproductive success (fitness), stressing the important role of the wide plasticity in reproductive modes of stony corals in determining their evolutionary success.

Theories related to sex change in plants and animals have often progressed along disparate lines.

Our discovery of plant-like sex allocation in corals brings our understanding of the evolutionary significance of sex change in the plant and the animal kingdoms closer together.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Proceedings B is the Royal Society's flagship biological research journal, dedicated to the rapid publication and broad dissemination of high-quality research papers, reviews and comment and reply papers. The scope of journal is diverse and is especially strong in organismal biology.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences