Methodology and Measurement of ATP in Coral

The amount of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in living coral is important because this universal energy-supply molecule could become a physiological index for coral conservation. Because coral samples usually contain less than 0.01% living tissue by weight, no ATP measuring method had been previously applied to corals. We examined various methods of ATP extraction and a technique to concentrate ATP by column chromatography was developed. We found that extraction with H₂SO₄ followed by concentration on charcoal-celite column gave a good result. These data were compared with other morphological and physiological parameters of corals such as weight, surface, polyp number, total protein, total organic carbon and chlorophyll a. The high correlation among these data indicate the feasibility of the method. This method may provide a new approach—a physiological parameter for coral conservation.