Merging scleractinian genera: the overwhelming genetic similarity between solitary Desmophyllum and colonial Lophelia

• Published in: BMC Evolutionary Biology
• Main Authors: Addamo, Anna Maria, Vertino, Agostina, Stolarski, Jaroslaw, García-Jiménez, Ricardo, Taviani, Marco, Machordom, Annie
• Other Authors: European Commission, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BioMed Central 2016
• Subjects: Desmophyllum dianthus; Genetic divergence; Lophelia pertusa; Microsatellites; Mitochondrial genome; Skeletal plasticity
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/134210; https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-016-0654-8; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100004837

[EN] This adaptation text reproduces chapter VI of the dissertation “Results”: Systematics and phylogeography of the deep-sea coral Desmophyllum dianthus (Anthozoa, Hexacorallia): Morphological and molecular evidences, de Anna Maria Addamo (2014), http://hdl.handle.net/10261/134194 [ES] Este artículo es una adaptación del capítulo VI de “Resultados” de la tesis doctoral: Sistemática y filogeografía del coral de profundidad Desmophyllum dianthus (Anthozoa, Hexacorallia): Indicios morfológicos y moleculares, de Anna Maria Addamo (2014), http://hdl.handle.net/10261/134194 BACKGROUND: In recent years, several types of molecular markers and new microscale skeletal characters have shown potential as powerful tools for phylogenetic reconstructions and higher-level taxonomy of scleractinian corals. Nonetheless, discrimination of closely related taxa is still highly controversial in scleractinian coral research. Here we used newly sequenced complete mitochondrial genomes and 30 microsatellites to define the genetic divergence between two closely related azooxanthellate taxa of the family Caryophylliidae: solitary Desmophyllum dianthus and colonial Lophelia pertusa. RESULTS: In the mitochondrial control region, an astonishing 99.8 % of nucleotides between L. pertusa and D. dianthus were identical. Variability of the mitochondrial genomes of the two species is represented by only 12 non-synonymous out of 19 total nucleotide substitutions. Microsatellite sequence (37 loci) analysis of L. pertusa and D. dianthus showed genetic similarity is about 97 %. Our results also indicated that L. pertusa and D. dianthus show high skeletal plasticity in corallum shape and similarity in skeletal ontogeny, micromorphological (septal and wall granulations) and microstructural characters (arrangement of rapid accretion deposits, thickening deposits). CONCLUSIONS: Molecularly and morphologically, the solitary Desmophyllum and the dendroid Lophelia appear to be significantly more similar to each other than other unambiguous coral genera ...