So what causes acro splices?

[SeaworthyAquatics]

I've always been interested in what causes it. I'm inclined to believe it's just their DNA and when the conditions are right, it will just happen, but I hear a lot thrown around about it with little evidence. Does it need the DNA of another? Do they need to touch and somehow be compatible? Is it just nature finding a way? Let me know what you think and of course, show me yours!

 

[eggie]

I've always been interested in what causes it. I'm inclined to believe it's just their DNA and when the conditions are right, it will just happen, but I hear a lot thrown around about it with little evidence. Does it need the DNA of another? Do they need to touch and somehow be compatible? Is it just nature finding a way? Let me know what you think and of course, show me yours!

I think its more of a protein in the coral that could cause the splice or other color. Graham is the best guy to give a better answer. IMO

 

[JonoH]

A lot of them are caused by GFP - the Fluorescent Protein infection right?

I have this showing up in an Orange Setosa in my tank at the moment!

 

[Graham's Aquaculture]

I think its more of a protein in the coral that could cause the splice or other color. Graham is the best guy to give a better answer. IMO

Sorry to disappoint, but despite growing a lot of different grafted/spliced strains, they're still a bit of a mystery to me. I've seen the Reefbuilders article about it being a green fluorescent protein, but I'm not sure how they determined this. I suppose if one was inclined they could send two tissue samples to Aquabiomics and perhaps they could compare the DNA sequencing.

Certain acros definitely seem predisposed to picking up grafting.

I've tried to force grafting before by taking a green frag of RRC rainbow splice and mounting it next to another mille frag. They always sting each other, or one grows over the other, but I've never had them successfully graft.

I've also had colonies where I cut a red branch and a green branch and they fight or grow over each other despite from being from the same mother colony. This is not the norm though, usually they merge together. But it's interesting that they don't seem to recognize each other as the same coral in some cases.

I've also observed some grafting is stable, while others can move around or disappear entirely. I've isolated frags of PC Rainbow and JF Fox Flame that developed fluorescent green grafting in my system, only to have the green tissue completing disappear after being fragged and remounted.

One part I find really interesting is that the green portion of RRC Rainbow Splice grows much faster than the red portion. Perhaps there's applicability here to helping coral reefs in the wild, or even increasing growth rates in captivity. Would it be possible to intentionally infect a coral to greatly increase it's growth rate?

Growing out grafted acros can be a challenge. With RRC Rainbow Splice, for example, you have to constantly cut out green sections if you want a nicely balanced colony with 50/50 red/green. There are other grafted corals where both colors grow at a similar rate. I always recommend one I grow called Grafted Zeus as both the red and green portion grow equally fast in most conditions. This coral you can just let grow and get good results, while others Like RRC Rainbow Splice need constantly trimmed to get equal coloration.

Well, that's my collection of random thoughts, I probably generated way more questionst than I answered!

 

[386reeftrader]

Seems likely that it’s a mutation in the DNA. In nature a true graft could occur during reproduction phases

What we see as “splicing” in the hobby is more likely a gene mutation since a lot of these corals acquire this additional color after being in the hobby for years.

In plants there’s transposons which alter parts of the DNA in a genome giving plants variegation or mutated colors. IMO it’s something along those lines within the chlorophyll in the corals algae which is why it tends to always result in a green mutation.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

@TopShelfAquatics do you guys know the answer to this?

 

[Dust Bowl Corals]

I've also observed some grafting is stable, while others can move around or disappear entirely. I've isolated frags of PC Rainbow and JF Fox Flame that developed fluorescent green grafting in my system, only to have the green tissue completing disappear after being fragged and remounted.

Interesting you’ve experienced that with Fox Flames. Here’s on that started as a typical Fox flame and now looks like this