Cold shock response in the Octocoral Leptogorgia virgulata

Response to cold-induced temperature stress in the octocoral Leptogorgia virgulata was examined. This organism is a temperate colonial cnidarian residing in mid-Atlantic subtidal waters (10-23°C). Octocorals are able to survive harsh environmental conditions, and were therefore ideal for this study, which exposed the organism to varying temperature changes in order to observe unique cold shock protein synthesis. The octocorals were collected and maintained in 230C saltwater tanks. They were removed and radioactively labeled with 35S-methionine/cysteine, for four hours under cold shock conditions. Radioactive proteins were separated by one-dimensional SDS-PAGE and detected through autoradiography. Four unique cold shock proteins were observed, following cold shock; two proteins (25kD and 44kD) at 12.50C and two proteins (30.9kD and 39.8kD) at 140C. This data indicates that cold-induced environmental stress affects protein synthesis in the octocoral L. virgulata