From Guy Cox, University of Sydney
Your excellent article on damaged coral reefs had one minor error (8 July, p 28). The symbiotic zooxanthellae algae do not “lend coral its vivid colour”. The only colour they provide is a dingy brown – they contain orange peridinin and green chlorophyll.
The brilliant colours come from native pigments in the coral tissue. Right now they are arousing a lot of interest among cell biologists as they are proteins that can be used as expressible tags or markers.
Sydney, Australia
