Mitochondrial sequences of Seriatopora corals show little agreement with morphology and reveal the duplication of a tRNA gene near the control region

College

College of Science

Department/Unit

Biology

Document Type

Article

Source Title

Coral Reefs

Volume

27

Issue

4

First Page

789

Last Page

794

Publication Date

12-1-2008

Abstract

The taxonomy of corals of the genus Seriatopora has not previously been studied using molecular sequence markers. As a first step toward a re-evaluation of species boundaries in this genus, mitochondrial sequence variability was analyzed in 51 samples collected from Okinawa, New Caledonia, and the Philippines. Four clusters of sequences were detected that showed little concordance with species currently recognized on a morphological basis. The most likely explanation is that the skeletal characters used for species identification are highly variable (polymorphic or phenotypically plastic); alternative explanations include introgression/hybridization, or deep coalescence and the retention of ancestral mitochondrial polymorphisms. In all individuals sequenced, two copies of trnW were found on either side of the atp8 gene near the putative D-loop, a novel mitochondrial gene arrangement that may have arisen from a duplication of the trnW-atp8 region followed by a deletion of one atp8. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.

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Digitial Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1007/s00338-008-0407-2

Disciplines

Biology

Keywords

Scleractinia; Cnidaria; Mitochondrial DNA

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