(2013) DNA barcoding reveals the coral “laboratory-rat”, Stylophora pistillata encompasses multiple identities. Scientific Reports, Volume 3 (Number 1520). Article no. 1520. doi:10.1038/srep01520 ISSN 2045-2322.

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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.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology
Divisions:	Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Life Sciences (2010- )
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Marine animals -- Genetics, Marine organisms -- Genetics, Reef organisms -- Genetics, Marine biology -- Genetics, Marine biology -- Classification, Genetics, Species
Journal or Publication Title:	Scientific Reports
Publisher:	Nature Publishing Group
ISSN:	2045-2322
Official Date:	2013
Dates:	Date Event 2013 Published
Volume:	Volume 3
Number:	Number 1520
Page Range:	Article no. 1520
DOI:	10.1038/srep01520
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access (Creative Commons)
Date of first compliant deposit:	24 December 2015
Date of first compliant Open Access:	24 December 2015
Funder:	Guo jia ke xue wei yuan hui [National Science Council (Taiwan)] , Zhong yang yan jiu yuan [Academia Sinica (Taipei, Taiwan)]

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