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Mitogenomic analysis of Montipora cactus and Anacropora matthai (cnidaria; scleractinia; acroporidae) indicates an unequal rate of mitochondrial evolution among Acroporidae corals

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Abstract

The complete nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial (mt) genome was determined for specimens of the coral species Montipora cactus (Bernard 1897) and Anacropora matthai (Pillai 1973), representing two morphologically distinct genera of the family Acroporidae. These sequences were compared with the published mt genome sequence for the confamilial species, Acropora tenuis (Dana 1846). The size of the mt genome was 17,887 bp and 17,888 bp for M. cactus and A. matthai. Gene content and organization was found to be very similar among the three Acroporidae mt genomes with a group I intron occurring in the NADH dehyrogenase 5 (nad5) gene. The intergenic regions were also similar in length among the three corals. The control region located between the small ribosomal RNA (ms) and the cytochrome oxidase 3 (cox3) gene was significantly smaller in M. cactus and A. matthai (both 627 bp) than in A. tenuis (1086 bp). Only one set of repeated sequences was identified at the 3′-end of the control regions in M. cactus and A. matthai. A lack of the abundant repetitive elements which have been reported for A. tenuis, accounts for the relatively short control regions in M. cactus and A. matthai. Pairwise distances and relative rate analyses of 13 protein coding genes, the group I intron and the largest intergenic region, igr3, revealed significant differences in the rate of molecular evolution of the mt genome among the three species, with an extremely slow rate being seen between Montipora and Anacropora. It is concluded that rapid mt genome evolution is taking place in genus Acropora relative to the confamilial genera Montipora and Anacropora although all are within the relatively slow range thought to be typical of Anthozoa.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Jackie Wolstenholme for sample collection during the 1999 Tethyana expedition, and the staffs of the Penghu Aquarium for logistic support during coral spawning trips in 2002. Many thanks to Chang-Feng Dai, Jackie Wolstenholme, and Paul Muir, members of the Evolution and Ecology discussion group, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. This work was supported by grants from the Australian Research Council to C.C.W. and Institute of Zoology/Research Centre for Biodiversity, Academia Sinica (IZAS/RCBAS) to C.A.C. This is the Evolution and Ecology Group, IZAS/RCBAS Contribution no. 29.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Centre for Biodiversity, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 115, Taiwan

    Ching-Chih Tseng & Chaolun Allen Chen

  2. Museum of Tropical Queensland, Townsville, 4810, Queensland, Australia

    Carden C. Wallace

  3. Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chaolun Allen Chen

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  1. Ching-Chih Tseng
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  2. Carden C. Wallace
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  3. Chaolun Allen Chen
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Correspondence to Chaolun Allen Chen.

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Tseng, CC., Wallace, C.C. & Chen, C.A. Mitogenomic analysis of Montipora cactus and Anacropora matthai (cnidaria; scleractinia; acroporidae) indicates an unequal rate of mitochondrial evolution among Acroporidae corals. Coral Reefs 24, 502–508 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-005-0499-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-005-0499-x

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