From population connectivity to the art of striping Russian dolls: the lessons from <i>Pocillopora</i> corals

Gélin, Pauline; Fauvelot, Cécile; Bigot, Lionel; Baly, Joseph S.; Magalon, Hélène

doi:10.1002/ece3.3747

Cited by 24 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 79 publications

(116 reference statements)

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“…Here, the three haplotypes do not share any individuals in terms of assigned a priori morphotypes according to the network analysis. These results confirm the reproducibility of methods and congruency of results [4,33].…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 80%

Living on the edge: Assessing the diversity of South African Pocillopora on the margins of the Southwestern Indian Ocean

et al. 2019

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Scleractinia of the Maputaland reef complex (MRC) in South Africa exist at the margins of the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) coral distribution and are the only substantial hermatypic coral communities in South Africa. Pocillopora species occupy a conspicuous component of the MRC, and previous investigations identified three species of Pocillopora utilizing conventional taxonomy. Thus, our aims were four-fold: to elucidate Pocillopora species diversity using genetic techniques, primarily using species delimitation methods based on the ORF gene; to test for the presence of hybridisation within the Pocillopora community on the South-West margin of distribution in the Indian Ocean using two nuclear and two mitochondrial markers; to test the presence of cryptic species, using 13 microsatellite markers, finally, to elucidate the degree of genetic diversity within each Pocillopora species found and compare this to communities in lower latitudes. We illustrate taxonomic inconsistencies between these inventories and our phylogenetic data. The MRC harbours unique populations of Pocillopora , consisting of three species hypothetically co-occurring throughout the south WIO, namely: P . meandrina / P . eydouxi , commonly misidentified as P . verrucosa , P . verrucosa , sometimes correctly identified, but also commonly misidentified as P . damicornis sensu lato , and P . villosa , almost always misidentified as P . eydouxi . The hypothesis that hybrid swarms of Pocillopora occur in marginal environments such as the MRC was not supported, with low levels of introgressive hybridization reported instead. Analyses illustrate low genetic diversity at the species and population resolutions, suggesting a small founder population for each species. Nevertheless, these populations are demographically unique, exhibiting high levels of ITS2 haplotype endemism compared to higher latitude populations and the rest of the WIO. Pocillopora diversity on the MRC represents a unique assemblage and warrants further protection.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 80%

Living on the edge: Assessing the diversity of South African Pocillopora on the margins of the Southwestern Indian Ocean

et al. 2019

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“…Several recent molecular studies discovered multiple instances of evolutionary differentiation between the Indian and Pacific coral fauna, including unique Indian lineages and unexpected evolutionary breaks between Indian and Pacific coral populations (Flot et al, 2011;Stefani et al, 2011;Arrigoni et al, 2012Arrigoni et al, , 2016aArrigoni et al, , 2016bArrigoni et al, , 2016cBenzoni et al, 2012a;Arrigoni et al, 2012Arrigoni et al, , 2016aArrigoni et al, , 2016bArrigoni et al, , 2016cHuang et al, 2014b;Kitano et al, 2014;Richards et al, 2016;Gélin et al, 2017b). The description of Paraechinophyllia increases the number of coral genera endemic to the northern and/or western Indian Ocean, including Anomastraea, Coscinaraea, Craterastrea, Ctenella, Gyrosmilia, Horastrea, and Sclerophyllia (Veron, 2000;Benzoni et al, 2012a;Arrigoni et al, 2015).…”

Section: Origin Of Paraechinophylliamentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncovering hidden coral diversity: a new cryptic lobophylliid scleractinian from the Indian Ocean

et al. 2018

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Extant biodiversity can easily be underestimated by the presence of cryptic taxa, even among commonly observed species. Scleractinian corals are challenging to identify because of their ecophenotypic variationplasticity and morphological plasticityvariation determined by genotype. In addition, molecular analysesdata haves revealed the occurrence of cryptic speciation. Here, we described a new cryptic lobophylliid genus and species Paraechinophyllia variabilis gen. nov., sp. nov., which is morphologically indistinguishable similar to from Echinophyllia aspera and E. orpheensis. The new taxon occurs in Mayotte Island, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, and the Red Sea. Six molecular markers (COI, 12S, ATP6-NAD4, NAD3-NAD5, histone H3, and ITS) and 46 morphological characters at three different levels (macromorphology, micromorphology, and microstructure) were examined. The resulting molecular phylogeny reconstruction showed that Paraechinophyllia gen. nov. represents a distinct group within theof Lobophylliidae that diverged from the lineage leading to Echinophyllia and Oxypora in the Early Miocene, approximately 21.5 million years ago. The morphological phylogeny reconstruction clustered Paraechinophyllia gen. nov., Echinophyllia, and Oxypora together in a single clade. and Aa sole morphological character, calice relief, discriminated Paraechinophyllia gen. nov. from the latter two genera, suggesting that limited morphological variation has occurred over a long period. These results highlight the importance of cryptic taxa in reef corals, with implications for population genetics, ecological studies, and conservation.

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“…(type 8) has an unclear position within the Pocillopora phylogeny but is considered as a valid taxon ( Flot et al, 2008 ; Pinzón et al, 2013 ; Schmidt-Roach et al, 2014 ). The mtORF and hist 3 regions are the major molecular tools for assessing the Pocillopora distribution in the Indo-Pacific region ( Gélin et al, 2017a , 2017b ; Poquita-Du et al, 2017 ; Johnston, Forsman & Toonen, 2018 ; Torres & Ravago-Gotanco, 2018 ). However, while most studies have focused on the horizontal distribution of Pocillopora ( Gélin et al, 2017a , 2017b ; Poquita-Du et al, 2017 ; Johnston, Forsman & Toonen, 2018 ), its distribution along a vertical gradient has not been specifically addressed, despite mentions of its presence at various depths ( Ziegler et al, 2014 ; Gorospe & Karl, 2015 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular assessment ofPocillopora verrucosa(Scleractinia; Pocilloporidae) distribution along a depth gradient in Ludao, Taiwan

Palmas

Soto

Denis

et al. 2018

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It can be challenging to identify scleractinian corals from the genus Pocillopora Lamarck 1816 in the field because of their large range of inter- and intra-specific morphological variation that co-occur with changes in the physical environment. This task is made more arduous in the context of a depth gradient, where light and water current could greatly affect the morphology of the corallum. Pocillopora verrucosa (Ellis & Solander 1786) in Taiwan was previously reported exclusively from shallow waters (<10 m in depth), but a recent observation of this species in the mesophotic zone (>40 m in depth) questions this bathymetric distribution. We used the mitochondrial open reading frame and the histone 3 molecular markers to investigate the vertical and horizontal spatial distribution of P. verrucosa around Ludao (Green Island), Taiwan. We genotyped 101 P. verrucosa-like colonies collected from four depth zones, ranging from 7 to 45 m, at three sites around the island. Of the 101 colonies sampled, 85 were genotyped as P. verrucosa, 15 as P. meandrina, and one specimen as an undescribed Pocillopora species. P. verrucosa was found at all depths, while P. meandrina and the undescribed Pocillopora specimen were limited to 15 m depth. P. verrucosa has a large bathymetric distribution around Ludao and could benefit from the refuge that the mesophotic zone offers. This study illustrates the difficulty of identifying Pocillopora corals in the field and emphasizes the relevance of molecular taxonomy as an important and complementary tool to traditional taxonomy for clarifying vertical and horizontal species distribution. Our results also illustrate the need in conservation biology to target species genetic diversity rather than just species diversity.

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From population connectivity to the art of striping Russian dolls: the lessons from Pocillopora corals

Cited by 24 publications

References 79 publications

Living on the edge: Assessing the diversity of South African Pocillopora on the margins of the Southwestern Indian Ocean

Living on the edge: Assessing the diversity of South African Pocillopora on the margins of the Southwestern Indian Ocean

Uncovering hidden coral diversity: a new cryptic lobophylliid scleractinian from the Indian Ocean

Molecular assessment ofPocillopora verrucosa(Scleractinia; Pocilloporidae) distribution along a depth gradient in Ludao, Taiwan

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