E-Mail IMAGE: A colony of Acropora tenuis grown in a natural sea environment and transferred to an aquarium to induce spawning. view more Credit: Reproduced from Researchers have successfully grown cells from the stony coral, Acropora tenuis, in petri dishes The cell lines were created by separating out cells from coral larvae, which then developed into eight distinct cell types Seven out of eight cell types were stable and could grow indefinitely, remaining viable even after freezing Some of the cell types represented endoderm-like cells, and could therefore shed light on how coral interacts with photosynthesizing algae and how bleaching occurs