COMPOSITION OF SOLUBLE MINERALIZING MATRICES IN ZOOXANTHELLATE AND NON-ZOOXANTHELLATE SCLERACTINIAN CORALS - BIOCHEMICAL ASSESSMENT OF PHOTOSYNTHETIC METABOLISM THROUGH THE STUDY OF A SKELETAL FEATURE

Soluble organic matrices extracted from aragonitic skeletons produced by recent zooxanthellate and non-zooxanthellate scleractinian corals w ere studied after suitable hydrolyses, by HPLC chromatographies allowi ng characterization of their amino acid and monosaccharide composition s. Clear compositional differences can be correlated with the symbioti c or non-symbiotic character in both proteic (via Asp, Glu, Ala and Se r) and glucidic phases of soluble matrices (via GalN, GlcN and Gal), p roviding new criteria to assess the impact of photosynthetic metabolis m on skeletal features of scleractinian corals.