Morphological and genetic analyses of xeniid soft coral diversity (Octocorallia; Alcyonacea)
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Morphological and genetic analyses of xeniid soft coral diversity (Octocorallia; Alcyonacea) Kristina Stemmer & Ingo Burghardt & Christoph Mayer & Götz B. Reinicke & Heike Wägele & Ralph Tollrian & Florian Leese
Received: 7 July 2012 / Accepted: 27 November 2012 / Published online: 28 December 2012 # Gesellschaft für Biologische Systematik 2012
Abstract Studies on the biodiversity and evolution of octocorals are hindered by the incomplete knowledge of their taxonomy, which is due to few reliable morphological characters. Therefore, assessment of true species diversity within abundant and ecologically important families such as Xeniidae is difficult. Mitochondrial genes provide a reliable solution to this problem for a wide range of taxa. However, low mutation rates of the mitochondrial DNA in octocorals result in insufficient variability for species discrimination. We compared the variation of a fragment of the Signal Recognition Particle 54 gene (SRP54, proposed for octocorals) and the mitochondrial ND6/ND3 marker among members of the xeniid genera Ovabunda, Xenia, Heteroxenia and Bayerxenia. The mean uncorrected pairwise sequence divergence was 39 % for SRP54 compared to 2 % for Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13127-012-0119-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Kristina Stemmer and Florian Leese contributed equally to this study. K. Stemmer : C. Mayer : R. Tollrian : F. Leese Department of Animal Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany C. Mayer : H. Wägele Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany K. Stemmer (*) Functional Ecology, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany e-mail: [email protected] G. B. Reinicke Deutsches Meeresmuseum, Stralsund, Germany I. Burghardt Leibniz-Center for Tropical Marine Ecology, Bremen, Germany
ND6/ND3. Morphological assignments were not always supported by genetics: Species diversity was underestimated (one case) or overestimated, probably reflecting intraspecific polymorphisms or hinting at recent speciations. ND6/ND3 is informative for some species-level assignments, whereas SRP54 shows the variability needed for species delimitations within this understudied taxon. Our results on both genes show their potential for evolutionary and biodiversity studies in Xeniidae. Keywords Xeniidae . SRP54 . ND6/ND3 . Molecular marker . Systematics . Phylogeny
Introduction Species within the alcyonacean soft coral family Xeniidae, in particular the genera Ovabunda, Alderslade (2001), Xenia, Lamarck (1816), Bayerxenia, Alderslade (2001) and Heteroxenia, Kölliker (1874), are essential members of tropical reef communities throughout the Indo-WestPacific and the Red Sea. They play an important role in recolonising destroyed reef areas even before algae can grow (Reinicke 1995). Furthermore, their natural products are of interest to biochemists (Affeld et al. 2009; Anta et al. 2002). Since xen
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