Coral species in the genus Acropora are key ecological components of coral reefs worldwide and represent the most diverse genus of scleractinian corals. While key species of Indo-Pacific Acropora have annotated genomes, no annotated genome has been published for either of the two species of Caribbean Acropora. Here we present the first fully annotated genome of the endangered Caribbean staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis. We assembled and annotated this genome using high-fidelity nanopore long-read sequencing with gene annotations validated with mRNA sequencing. The assembled genome size is 318 Mb, with 28,059 validated genes. Comparative genomic analyses with other Acropora revealed unique features in A. cervicornis, including contractions in immune pathways and expansions in signaling pathways. Phylogenetic analysis confirms previous findings showing that A. cervicornis diverged from Indo-Pacific relatives around 41 million years ago, with the closure of the western Tethys Sea, prior to the primary radiation of Indo-Pacific Acropora. This new A. cervicornis genome enriches our understanding of the speciose Acropora and addresses evolutionary inquiries concerning speciation and hybridization in this diverse clade.
- Award ID(s):
- 1856245
- PAR ID:
- 10297339
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Coral Reefs - this is not a proceedings, it is a journal, but it is not in your dropdown!?
- Volume:
- not assigned yet
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Aim The “sexy shrimp”
Thor amboinensis is currently considered a single circumtropical species. However, the tropical oceans are partitioned by hard and soft barriers to dispersal, providing ample opportunity for allopatric speciation. Herein, we test the null hypothesis thatT. amboinensis is a single global species, reconstruct its global biogeographical history, and comment on population‐level patterns throughout the Tropical Western Atlantic.Location Coral reefs in all tropical oceans.
Methods Specimens of
Thor amboinensis were obtained through field collection and museum holdings. We used one mitochondrial (COI ) and two nuclear (NaK, enolase) gene fragments for global species delimitation and phylogenetic analyses (n = 83 individuals, 30 sample localities), while phylogeographical reconstruction in theTWA was based onCOI only (n = 303 individuals, 10 sample localities).Results We found evidence for at least five cryptic lineages (9%–22%
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-021-02163-1
