DNA barcoding reveals the coral "laboratory-rat", Stylophora pistillata encompasses multiple identities
Journal
Scientific reports
Journal Volume
3
Journal Issue
1
Date Issued
2013
Author(s)
Keshavmurthy, Shashank
Yang, Sung-Yin
Alamaru, Ada
Chuang, Yao-Yang
Pichon, Michel
Obura, David
Fontana, Silvia
De Palmas, Stephane
Stefani, Fabrizio
Benzoni, Francesca
MacDonald, Angus
Noreen, Annika M E
Chen, Chienshun
Wallace, Carden C
Pillay, Ruby Moothein
Amri, Affendi Yang
Reimer, James D
Mezaki, Takuma
Sheppard, Charles
Loya, Yossi
Abelson, Avidor
Mohammed, Mohammed Suleiman
Baker, Andrew C
Mostafavi, Pargol Ghavam
Suharsono, Budiyanto A
Chen, Chaolun Allen
Abstract
Stylophora pistillata is a widely used coral "lab-rat" species with highly variable morphology and a broad biogeographic range (Red Sea to western central Pacific). Here we show, by analysing Cytochorme Oxidase I sequences, from 241 samples across this range, that this taxon in fact comprises four deeply divergent clades corresponding to the Pacific-Western Australia, Chagos-Madagascar-South Africa, Gulf of Aden-Zanzibar-Madagascar, and Red Sea-Persian/Arabian Gulf-Kenya. On the basis of the fossil record of Stylophora, these four clades diverged from one another 51.5-29.6 Mya, i.e., long before the closure of the Tethyan connection between the tropical Indo-West Pacific and Atlantic in the early Miocene (16-24 Mya) and should be recognised as four distinct species. These findings have implications for comparative ecological and/or physiological studies carried out using Stylophora pistillata as a model species, and highlight the fact that phenotypic plasticity, thought to be common in scleractinian corals, can mask significant genetic variation.
Subjects
SCLERACTINIAN CORALS; MITOCHONDRIAL; PHYLOGENIES; EXTINCTION; DIVERGENCE; DIVERSITY; BOUNDARY; ANTHOZOA; CNIDARIA; HISTORY
Publisher
NATURE RESEARCH
Type
journal article