Molecular response of the coral Acropora millepora to three settlement and/or metamorphosis induced stimuli

Two known settlement/metamorphosis inducing stimuli (crustose coralline algae, and ethanolic extract of crustose coralline algae) and one stimulus which just induces metamorphosis (LWamide) were used to stimulate competent planula larvae of the coral Acropora millepora. Samples were taken 0.5h, 4h and 12h post induction isolate the genes controlling settlement and metamorphosis in this coral. All samples were labeled with Cy3 and co-hybridised with a Cy5 labeled common reference sample. There were two replicates. The Cy5 labeled common reference was a pool of equal parts of all of the test samples. For hybridisation, the same quantity of RNA as used for the test sample was Cy5 labeled for co-hybridisation with the Cy3 labeled sample.