New distribution records of the gall crab Opecarcinus cathyae van der Meij, 2014 (Decapoda: Brachyura: Cryptochiridae) from the Red Sea, Maldives and Japan

Meij, Sancia E. T. van der; Benzoni, Francesca; Berumen, Michael L.; Naruse, Tohru

doi:10.1007/s12526-016-0598-7

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Strikingly, in Cryptochiridae collected from various locations in the Indo-Pacific hardly any polymorphic sites are present on the COI gene, even over distances as large as between the Indo-Malayan region and New Caledonia24, or the Red Sea and Japan36. Generally, COI sequence data shows high resolution at species level, and work well as a barcoding marker.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Extreme mitochondrial variation in the Atlantic gall crab Opecarcinus hypostegus (Decapoda: Cryptochiridae) reveals adaptive genetic divergence over Agaricia coral hosts

Tienderen

Meij

2017

Sci Rep

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The effectiveness of migration in marine species exhibiting a pelagic larval stage is determined by various factors, such as ocean currents, pelagic larval stage duration and active habitat selection. Direct measurement of larval movements is difficult and, consequently, factors determining the gene flow patterns remain poorly understood for many species. Patterns of gene flow play a key role in maintaining genetic homogeneity in a species by dampening the effects of local adaptation. Coral-dwelling gall crabs (Cryptochiridae) are obligate symbionts of stony corals (Scleractinia). Preliminary data showed high genetic diversity on the COI gene for 19 Opecarcinus hypostegus specimens collected off Curaçao. In this study, an additional 176 specimens were sequenced and used to characterize the population structure along the leeward side of Curaçao. Extremely high COI genetic variation was observed, with 146 polymorphic sites and 187 unique haplotypes. To determine the cause of this high genetic diversity, various gene flow scenarios (geographical distance along the coast, genetic partitioning over depth, and genetic differentiation by coral host) were examined. Adaptive genetic divergence across Agariciidae host species is suggested to be the main cause for the observed high intra-specific variance, hypothesised as early signs of speciation in O. hypostegus.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…data). These results were surprising, because most Indo-Pacific members of the Cryptochiridae show very low haplotype diversity at the COI gene across large distances and COI is most commonly used to infer phylogenetic relationships at species level243536 but see ref. 37.…”

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confidence: 99%

Extreme mitochondrial variation in the Atlantic gall crab Opecarcinus hypostegus (Decapoda: Cryptochiridae) reveals adaptive genetic divergence over Agaricia coral hosts

Tienderen

Meij

2017

Sci Rep

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“…High-quality DNA was extracted from the fifth pereiopod muscle using Dneasy ® Blood and Tissue kit (Qiagen Inc., Hilden, Germany) following the manufacturer's protocol. DNA was amplified using the universal primers LCO1490/HCO2198 (Folmer et al, 1994) for the COI, the primers 16L2/16H10 (Schubart, 2009) for the 16S rRNA, and finally, the primers H3F/ H3_R_SET (Colgan et al, 2000;van der Meij, 2015b) for the histone H3. The DNA amplification was performed in a 15 mL PCR volume of Multiplex Master Mix (Qiagen Inc., Hilden, Germany), 0.2 mL of each primer, and <0.1 ng of DNA.…”

Section: Dna Extraction Amplification and Sequence Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, Leptoseris is one of the most abundant scleractinian genera in MCEs (Fricke et al, 1987;Hinderstein et al, 2010;Rooney et al, 2010;Kahng et al, 2014, Kahng et al, 2017Loya et al, 2019). The strict association between gall crabs and scleractinian corals and the cryptochirid host specificity at host species, genera, or families (e.g., van der Meij, 2015avan der Meij, , 2015bvan der Meij et al, 2015;Bähr et al, 2021;Xu et al, 2022;van der Schoot and Hoeksema, 2024) led to hypothesize that the number of host corals could predict the number of cryptochirids (van der Meij, 2015a; van der Schoot and Hoeksema, 2024). Moreover, Kohn and Leviten (1976) showed that habitat availability affects the abundance and diversity of coral-associated invertebrates.…”

Section: Mesophotic Opecarcinus Diversity and Host Coral Abundancementioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity and distribution of coral gall crabs associated with Red Sea mesophotic corals

Vimercati,

Terraneo,

Marchese

et al. 2024

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Coral-dwelling gall crabs (Cryptochiridae) live in an obligate symbiosis with reef-building corals from shallow to deep waters. In particular, crabs of the genus Opecarcinus are known to occur across the tropical belt in association with the scleractinian family Agariciidae, down to a depth of 89 m. The Red Sea is a semi-enclosed basin that has long been recognized as a region of high marine biodiversity and endemism, with more than 230 decapod species recorded so far. There, nine Opecarcinus species are recorded from shallow and mesophotic corals. However, the occurrence of Opecarcinus below 30 m depth is documented only in the Saudi Arabian coast of the Northern Red Sea, and the rest of the Saudi Arabian Red Sea has remained unstudied. In this work, we assess the diversity and distribution of Opecarcinus from the mesophotic waters of the Saudi Arabian Red Sea. Through Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) and Submarines explorations, we collected 10 gall crab specimens associated with Agariciidae corals at mesophotic depths between 47 and 89 m. Two mitochondrial and one nuclear markers were used to obtain crab phylogenetic tree showing that three of the Opecarcinus species known from Red Sea shallow-water corals can also live at mesophotic depths. This is the first assessment of the depth distribution of the genus Opecarcinus in the Red Sea. It provides further evidence of the depth range adaptability of the Opecarcinus-Agariciidae association and highlights the need for a more in-depth investigation of the largely overlooked mesophotic coral-associated fauna.

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The scleractinian Agaricia undata as a new host for the coral-gall crab Opecarcinus hypostegus at Bonaire, southern Caribbean

García-Hernández

Gier

Moorsel³

et al. 2020

Symbiosis

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The Caribbean scleractinian reef coral Agaricia undata (Agariciidae) is recorded for the first time as a host of the coral-gall crab Opecarcinus hypostegus (Cryptochiridae). The identity of the crab was confirmed with the help of DNA barcoding. The association has been documented with photographs taken in situ at 25 m depth and in the laboratory. The predominantly mesophotic depth range of the host species suggests this association to be present also at greater depths. With this record, all seven Agaricia species are now listed as gall-crab hosts, together with the agariciid Helioseris cucullata. Within the phylogeny of Agariciidae, Helioseris is not closely related to Agaricia. Therefore, the association between Caribbean agariciids and their gallcrab symbionts may either have originated early in their shared evolutionary history or later as a result of host range expansion. New information on coral-associated fauna, such as what is presented here, leads to a better insight on the diversity, evolution, and ecology of coral reef biota, particularly in the Caribbean, where cryptochirids have rarely been studied.

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New distribution records of the gall crab Opecarcinus cathyae van der Meij, 2014 (Decapoda: Brachyura: Cryptochiridae) from the Red Sea, Maldives and Japan

Cited by 3 publications

References 11 publications

Extreme mitochondrial variation in the Atlantic gall crab Opecarcinus hypostegus (Decapoda: Cryptochiridae) reveals adaptive genetic divergence over Agaricia coral hosts

Extreme mitochondrial variation in the Atlantic gall crab Opecarcinus hypostegus (Decapoda: Cryptochiridae) reveals adaptive genetic divergence over Agaricia coral hosts

Diversity and distribution of coral gall crabs associated with Red Sea mesophotic corals

The scleractinian Agaricia undata as a new host for the coral-gall crab Opecarcinus hypostegus at Bonaire, southern Caribbean

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