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ITS1 variation among Stichopathes cf. maldivensis (Hexacorallia: Antipatharia) whip black corals unveils conspecificity and population connectivity at local and global scales across the Indo-Pacific

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Abstract

Due to the dearth of molecular markers variable enough to distinguish species of black corals, species delimitation in Antipatharia is still mainly based on morphological traits. One of the few markers available, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region located in ribosomal DNA, has already been used several times to infer phylogenetic relationships among antipatharians. However, this region was never considered in population-scale studies of shallow-water black corals till now. Here, we sampled two phenotypic variants of 41 specimens of the shallow-water antipatharian Stichopathes cf. maldivensis along the SW of Madagascar. The sampling area represents 200 km of shore and encompasses the runoffs of three rivers. We used direct sequencing to determine the main ITS1 types present in the genomes of the collected specimens and retrieved sequences from GenBank for Indonesian specimens. Then, we constructed a haploweb to visualize possible species boundaries using the criterion of mutual allelic exclusivity. With this method, we confirm that the previously described phenotypic variants belong to a single species that apparently extends from Indonesia to Madagascar. Likewise, the three rivers that pour freshwater in southwestern Madagascar do not appear to act as a barrier for the larval dispersal of this species. This study highlights the usefulness of ITS markers within antipatharians at both species and population levels.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their interesting remarks and suggestions that improved the quality of this manuscript. The authors are grateful to the Institut Halieutique et des Sciences Marines (IHSM) of the University of Toliara for providing facilities. Many thanks to Gildas Todinanahary for the administrative support. Thank also to Emily Claereboudt, Guillaume Ghisbain and Radonirina Lebely for their help during underwater sampling and field trips, and to Iliana Baums and Dannise Ruiz-Ramos for sharing with us the chromatograms of their Leiopathes glaberrima study. LT was supported by a PhD grant from the Fonds pour la Formation à la Recherche dans l’Industrie et dans l’Agriculture (FRIA). This work was supported by the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) grant PDR/OL T.0084.18 and the Fonds Leopold III pour l’Exploration et la Conservation de la Nature.

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  1. Biology of Marine Organisms and Biomimetics, University of Mons, Mons, Belgium

    Lucas Terrana & Igor Eeckhaut

  2. Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Bruxelles, Belgium

    Jean-François Flot

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  1. Lucas Terrana
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Terrana, L., Flot, JF. & Eeckhaut, I. ITS1 variation among Stichopathes cf. maldivensis (Hexacorallia: Antipatharia) whip black corals unveils conspecificity and population connectivity at local and global scales across the Indo-Pacific. Coral Reefs 40, 521–533 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-02049-8

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