This study discusses the morphological characteristics of tissue and skeleton of Stylophora pistillata coral species, living on the reef patch at 3-5 m depth of El-Ain El-Sukhna area, Gulf of Suez, Red Sea, Egypt. Live tissue and skeleton imaging for S.pistillata were performed by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in order to understand the ultrastructural characteristics before doing any further molecular or genomic studies. Colonies showed numerous polyps, linked together by a common tissue usually referred to as the coenosarcs. Corallites were rounded in shape, regularly distributed along the polyps and linked together by the coenosteum ornamented with coenosteal spines. Aggregates of aragonite crystals were observed adjacent to coenosteal spines on the tissue. The skeleton located beneath the calicoblastic ectoderm of the polyp or the coenosarc. The surface of the skeleton was bearing shallow pits which might represent desmocyte attachment scars. Some polyps showed the presence of microborers as cyanobacteria, endolithic algae, and foraminifera which causing bioerosion in form of microscopic holes into the surface of the polyps which lead to damage of the living tissue and the skeleton. Bioerosion removes calcium carbonate of the skeleton which would weaken the coral skeletal framework and could reduce the mechanical stability of the reef. |
