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Could polyp pulsation be the key to species boundaries in the genus Ovabunda (Octocorallia: Alcyonacea: Xeniidae)?

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Abstract

Ovabunda is a common genus of the family Xeniidae in the Red Sea. In the current study, 70 Ovabunda colonies were collected in Eilat (Gulf of Aqaba) and evaluated for inter- and intra-species variation, both morphologically and genetically, using three mitochondrial genes (mtMutS, COI, ND2) and the nuclear 28S rDNA. The purpose of the study was to elucidate species boundaries within the genus and determine which morphological characters are congruent with genetic clades. We found a large intraspecific variation in morphological characters and therefore faced difficulties when trying to assign colonies to species based on classical taxonomy. Genetic analyses revealed that the morphospecies did not cluster according to their classification but, rather, in two groups: one comprising colonies with pulsating polyps and the other with non-pulsating polyps. Comparisons of SNP sites in 28S among parents and their respective offspring suggest that the pulsating and non-pulsating groups are reproductively isolated, as we did not find any of the heterozygotes that would be expected if cross-fertilization existed between the two clades. Based on these findings, we recommend further documentation of polyp pulsation in the study of other genera of the family Xeniidae.

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Acknowledgments

Support for this project came from the U.S.–Israeli Binational Science Foundation Grant #2008186 to Y.B., C.S.M. & R.J.T. and from the Israel Taxonomy Initiative (ITI). This research (Applications DE-TAF-662, AT TAF 2064, and GB TAF 3027) received support from the SYNTHESYS Project http://www.synthesys.info/which is financed by European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 “Capacities” Program. It also was in part supported by a Temminck Fellowship, the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, and The Israel Cohen Chair in Environmental Zoology to Y.B. We thank curators of the following museums for examination of material in their possession: A. Cabrinovic, The Natural History Museum London (BML); A.D. Chipman, National History collections of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ); J. Jurkowska, Museum of Natural History, Wroclaw University, Poland (MNHHWU); H. Sattmann, The Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (NHMW); L.P. van Ofwegen, the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, formerly Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden (RMNH); M. Grasshoff, Senckenberg Naturmuseum Frankfurt (SMF); and C. Lüter, Zoologisches Museum Berlin (ZMB). We thank The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences (IUI) for assistance and use of facilities. We acknowledge A. Shlagman for professional curatorial skills, M. Weis for technical assistance and N. Paz for editorial assistance. We would like to thank C. Gochev, Y. Bar-On, and G. Ovadia for their help in the field work and the first two for colony and planulae maintenance; many thanks to N. Chernihovsky and M. Chernihovsky for colony collection using technical dives; we greatly appreciate D. Huchon and K. Tamar and for assistance with the phylogenetic analyses. This work was carried out by A.H. as partial fulfillment of the requirements for a PhD degree at Tel Aviv University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Anna Halàsz & Yehuda Benayahu

  2. Department of Biology, Harvey Mudd College, 1250 N. Dartmouth Ave., Claremont, CA, 91711, USA

    Alexandra M. Reynolds & Catherine S. McFadden

  3. Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 46-007 Lilipuna Road, Kaneohe, HI, 96744, USA

    Robert J. Toonen

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  1. Anna Halàsz
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Guest editors: Yehuda Benayahu, Oren Levy & Tamar Lotan / Coelenterate Biology: Advanced Studies on Cnidaria and Ctenophora

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Halàsz, A., Reynolds, A.M., McFadden, C.S. et al. Could polyp pulsation be the key to species boundaries in the genus Ovabunda (Octocorallia: Alcyonacea: Xeniidae)?. Hydrobiologia 759, 95–107 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-014-2106-z

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