Your research question should arise out of your interests in the biological system that you are studying. For all researchers, including you, it is always necessary to become familiar with the system so that you can begin thinking about your research interests.

In order to get started, you will need to begin thinking about what aspects of coral biology or symbiosis you find interesting, and then begin finding and reading research papers on that topic, to provide you with background information and also the current state of understanding of that topic. Once you have read several papers and thought about the biological "problem" you can

• Develop a question about the biological phenomenon that you want to understand
• Develop a hypothesis that you believe is a plausible reason for why the biological phenomenon occurs, and possibly also a prediction that can be tested bioinformatically and experimentally.

The ability to develop research questions and hypotheses are not intuitive skills! It requires practice. If you would like, you can practice by working through a Case Study.

Puzzled?

Not sure what topics you find interesting? Consider coral bleaching (stress biology), coral disease (immune systems), cellular interactions between the symbiont and host (immune systems, cell biology), evolution of different classes of genes in metazoa (comparative genomics). If you want to explore general topics, visit Coral Reef Information System.