Abstract
Plant pigments of corals were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to investigate the secondary symbiotic algae of zooxanthella (dinoflagellate). Coral samples were collected from Sesoko, Okinawa. Pigment analysis was carried out using C8 column and binary elution system with photodiode array detection. HPLC analysis achieved the separation of more than 60 peaks of the pigments from more than 10 species of corals and about 30 pigment species of them were identified. In addition to marker pigments of dinoflagellate, a variety of pigments including chlorophyll d, chlorophyll b, chlorophyll c1, zeaxanthin, and lutein were detected. These findings suggest that in addition to the pigments from dinoflagellate, some of the pigments are probably due to epiphytic or endophytic algae growing in corals such as cyanobacteria, green algae and diatoms.
