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| For some reason, this week seems to be an amino acid love fest, between posts, such as the one I posted about previously, to now having products being touted to improve coloration and growth rates through the use of "special" bacteria strains and specific amino acids, I am about at my wits end. I have tried to find information that I could trust concerning if, and how corals would absorb such amino acids directly out of the water, but so far, all I can find are statements that start out with "it is highly likely" or "it is thought", which is not very reassuring to me. That and claims being made of now knowing that corals only use eight of the umpteen amino acids and they know which ones now and will soon publish the findings...blah blah blah.. Since amino acids are "the building blocks" of proteins, would not the coral get its needs from its own prey captured (being fed) proteins? What is the logic behind dumping any number of amino acid concoctions into our tanks? Is there any actual "proof" that in doing so, would actualy be of benefit? I did note one entry stating that free amino acids are not in great abundance on a typical reef, and if so, being "rare", would the corals have developed a need for something that is "rare" and instead found a more reliable source in what they eat to begin with? I also find it highly suspicious that when a recipe or product is being described, water changes are always part of the "recipe". hmmmmmm I also realize that this is most likely not something easily explained in this format, but anything I find that has actual PHD's behind it, I need to pay for a subscription first to be able to get beyond the teaser paragraph. All other online "sources" are just way to vague and seem to be guessing at it. My main focus would be on the dissolved free amino acids since anything else can be just called "food". Thanks! Chuck
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Hi Chuck:
Ovr the years, I have linked this article more times than any other. Perhaps I am responsible for the products themselves to some degree? Problem is, this article would contradict the products themselves, but if you only read casually and without understanding, you could clip quotes here and there and make it sound very appealing.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1218179&blobtype=pdf
The best part of this article for me, though, is the protocols they tried and determined for removing surface bacteria. This not only has implications for those who love to "dip" for unknown pathogens (as seawater/DI water was the best in making corals just release more mucus), but also in terms of my own work and in removing foreign DNA from coral tissue.
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Also
http://www.springerlink.com/content/r2154u42657334h4/
Also
O. Hoegh-Guldberg, J. Williamson. 1999. Availability of two forms of dissolved nitrogen to the coral Pocillopora damicornis and its symbiotic zooxanthellae Mar Biol 133: 561-570.
Abstract
The relative contribution of dissolved nitrogen (ammonium and dissolved free amino acids DFAAs) to the nitrogen budget of the reef-building coral Pocillopora damicornis was assessed for colonies growing on control and ammonium-enriched reefs at One Tree Island (southern Great Barrier Reef) during the ENCORE (Enrichment of Nutrient on Coral Reef; 1993 to 1996) project. P. damicornis acquired ammonium at rates of between 5.1 and 91.8 nmol N cmm2 hm1 which were not affected by nutrient treatment except in the case of one morph. In this case, uptake rates decreased from 80.5 to 42.8 nmol cmm2 hm1 (P < 0.05) on exposure to elevated ammonium over 12 mo. The presence or absence of light during measurement did not influence the uptake of ammonium ions. Nitrogen budgets revealed that the uptake of ammonium from concentrations of 0.11 to 0.13 wM could completely satisfy the demand of growing P. damicornis for new nitrogen. P. damicornis also took up DFAAs at rates ranging from 4.9 to 9.8 nmol N cmm2 hm1. These rates were higher in the dark than in the light (9.0 vs 5.1 nmol mm2 hm1, P < 0.001). Uptake rates were highest for the amino acids serine, arginine and alanine, and lowest for tyrosine. DFAA concentrations within the ENCORE microatolls that received ammonium were undetectable, whereas they ranged up to 100 nM within the control microatolls. The contribution of DFAAs to the nitrogen budget of P. damicornis constituted only a small fraction of the nitrogen potentially contributed by ammonium under field conditions. Even at the highest field concentrations measured during this study, DFAAs could contribute only 11.3% of the nitrogen demand of P.zdamicornis. This contribution, however, may be an important source of nitrogen when other sources such as ammonium are scarce or during periods when high concentrations of DFAAs become sporadically available (e.g. cell breakage during fish-grazing).
Relative
http://www.springerlink.com/content/v97tuf5whdgahhd2/
http://www.springerlink.com/content/v4j6887225n33538/
http://phage.sdsu.edu/research/pdf/Rohwer%20-%20Coral-bacteria%20in%20MEPS.pdf
http://phage.sdsu.edu/research/pdf/Knowlton%20and%20Rohwer%20-%20Holobiont%20in%20American%20Naturalist.pdf
Also, this is interesting in that the plabulae take up AAs but the adults release it:
Revital Ben-David-Zaslow and Yehuda Benayahu. 2000. Biochemical Composition, Metabolism, and Amino Acid Transport in Planula–Larvae of the Soft Coral Heteroxenia fuscescens J Exp. Zool 287: 401-412
Schlichter D, Liebezeit G. 1991. The natural release of aminoacids from the symbiotic coral Heteroxenia fuscescens(Ehrb.) as a function of photosynthesis. J Exp Mar BiolEcol 150:83–90.
Basically, food, bacteria growing on the coral and zooxanthellae are all that is needed.
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Eric Borneman
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| Thanks! That is exactly what I wanted to read instead of some advertising. And after a brief over view, I recognized where a few parts of this article were clipped out and used for their own purposes. Thats just down and dirty. I of course need to go back and read it in its entirety, but the conclussion was pretty much what I was guessing at after reading so much hype, in that, the full understanding of corals and their amino acid use/ production is still not known. Good hints, clues maybe and a direction to pursue, but I have a feeling that it will be found that besides the bacteria / zooxanthellae relationship, prey capture would provide the rest of their essential amino acids. direct absortion from the water does not seem like it would be a good way to direct amino acids at the corals. Yet now, there are a zillion products, recipes and methods for doing just that, everything has an "amino acids!" label on it, just like the "Has garllic!" craze a few years back. And besides, If you are not adding amino acids to your systems, that in itself speaks volumes. (please tell me you're not..lol) Chuck
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| Wow! Thanks Eric, now I know what I will be doing all day tomorrow! Looks like good stuff! Chuck
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Of course I do - everytime I add food to the tank.
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Eric Borneman
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 Got ya!, too funny!Chuck
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Dang, Eric beat me to it.  Of course, the serious point is, why not add a broad spectrum of 'amino acids' and let the coral take up what it requires.Chuck, we expect a report.  Fred
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| "why not add a broad spectrum of 'amino acids' " I do, every time I change the mixture of sea foods that I blender...he he he he... A report...ack! If I do, it will be more of a "from my understanding" and "if I got this right" kind of thing. Keep in mind, I am really just a moron in disguise, or has my cover been blown already?... Chuck
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| Amino Acids = Protein = Food (the stuff we feed our corals with) Prior to my starting to read through the material Eric had provided, I thought it would be wise to write down the questions I wanted answers for that would pertain to the use of amino acids added directly to the water. After writing down a few questions, it dawned on me that just one, would pretty much cover all others. To keep it simplified for myself, knowing what amino acids are needed is not as important to me as to how they get what they do need. I am also aware that the question itself makes assumptions that other related questions have been answered correctly, such as knowing what amino acids corals actualy need. How do corals get amino acids that they need, yet are unable to synthesize or are unable to synthesize enough of, for their metabolic needs? "Eight amino acids normally considered essential for animals were made by the five corals tested, although some of them were made only in small quantities. These eight amino acids are valine, isoleucine, leucine, tyrosine, phenylalanine histidine, methionine and lysine. The ability of cnidarians to synthesize these amino acids could be yet another indicator of a separate evolutionary history of the cnidarians from the rest of the Metazoa." ( http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1218179&blobtype=pdf ) This shows that corals are able to synthesize or have them synthesized for them, at least some of the amino acids thought to be essential. Okay, so they can "make" some of their own, thats one source, How do they get the rest of the amino acids, or those that they can not make? Same as the original question. "Food" is the obvious answer of course, since corals, being an animal, need protein to grow and heal wounds, and being an animal, they get their protein by eating other animals. The crux of the question then becomes many other questions, Outside of synthesis and prey capture, do corals have a need to absorb amino acids directly out of the water? Are they even capable of doing so? Do they do so only when prey is scarce? Is there even enough free amino acids floating around to make that capability something worth evolving to have? If the answers are no, then adding amino acids directly to the tank water would in short be nothing but polluting the tank for no good reason. Okay, but what about soaking "food" in amino acids as a way to enrich the food? I suspect that such soaking would only be of use if you were feeding your corals cardboard instead of a varied sea food (meaty) diet. Next comes the fun part, finding the answers to the above questions..... ACK!! oh, and if anyone feels the need to jump in here, please be my guest...lol One more! Why are "we" always having to reverse engineer products and claims!!!! well, thats not really a question on my part but more of a frustrated statement since I know the answer already...lol Chuck
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