A polyp-on-chip for coral long-term culture

Coral polyps are basic clonal biological units of reef corals. However, in vitro experimental model for long-term physiological and ecological studies has not been well developed due to the difficulty of effectively acquiring and culturing single polyps. This study developed an experimental platform based on microfluidics for culturing single coral polyps and tracing its growth state over time in the long run. The corresponding computational modeling was conducted to predict the metabolic processes under the static and dynamic conditions by coupling the mass transfer and reaction with Navier-Stokes equations. Design and fabrication of the microfluidic chip was the key to provide a constant laminar flow environment that enabled the controlled high oxygen and bicarbonate transfer for the cultivation of the single coral polyps. The single coral polyps were induced to bail out of the coral reef upon the chemical stress and cultured for more than fifteen days in the microfluidic chip. It was found that the single coral polyps in the microfluidic chip can maintain their normal metabolic process over the cultivation period, suggesting that our microfluidic platform can serve as a suitable tool to study the coral polyps by providing a controllable and suitable biological microenvironment.