Gorgonin

Gorgonin is a flexible scleroprotein which provides structural strength to gorgonian corals, a subset of the order Alcyonacea. Gorgonian corals have supporting skeletal axes made of gorgonin and/or calcite. Gorgonin makes up the joints of bamboo corals in the deep sea, and forms the central internal skeleton of sea fans. It frequently contains appreciable quantities of bromine, iodine, and tyrosine.

Gorgonin is diagenetically stable and is deposited in discrete annual growth rings in Primnoa resedaeformis, and possibly other species.

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