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Development and characterization of new polymorphic microsatellite markers in four sea anemones: Entacmaea quadricolor, Heteractis magnifica, Stichodactyla gigantea, and Stichodactyla mertensii

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Abstract

Relatively few studies have investigated the genetic population structure of sea anemones. This is particularly true for sea anemones that host some of the most iconic fishes on coral reefs, the anemonefishes. One of the main reasons for this knowledge gap is the lack of appropriate genetic markers. We developed and characterized a total of 47 novel polymorphic microsatellite markers for four host sea anemone species from the Indo-Pacific: Entacmaea quadricolor (n = 16 microsatellite markers), Heteractis magnifica (n = 8), Stichodactyla mertensii (n = 13), and Stichodactyla gigantea (n = 10). Here, we report genetic diversity statistics from two different sampling locations for each anemone species. Overall, we found that most markers were highly polymorphic. On average, we found a mean of seven alleles per locus. Observed and expected heterozygosities displayed high variation among loci, ranging from 0.033 to 0.980 and from 0.038 to 0.927, respectively. Only four loci showed deviations of Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium in both populations and were identified as having null alleles. Additionally, two pairs of loci were identified to be in linkage disequilibrium in only one population. Host anemones are highly sought after in the marine aquarium trade and are susceptible to thermal bleaching. Although most studies focus on their obligate symbionts (the anemonefish), genetic analyses of host sea anemones can expand our understanding of the biology, connectivity, and population structure of these organisms and potentially help develop conservation strategies that will aid both the host and its symbionts.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) (Office of Competitive Research Funding award CRG-1-BER-002 and baseline funding to MLB). We would like to thank the Bioscience Core Lab and the Coastal and Marine Resources Core Lab of KAUST for technical assistance and logistic aid. We thank the many people involved in the Kimbe Bay sampling team and the KAUST Reef Ecology Lab for collecting anemone tissue samples. The manuscript was improved by comments from two anonymous reviewers.

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  1. Remy Gatins

    Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, 100 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Red Sea Research Center, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia

    Remy Gatins & Michael L. Berumen

  2. Facultad de Ciencias, Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile

    Pablo Saenz-Agudelo

  3. National Marine Science Centre and Marine Ecology Research Centre, School of Environmental Science and Management, Southern Cross University, PO Box 4321, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, 2450, Australia

    Anna Scott

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  1. Remy Gatins
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  4. Michael L. Berumen
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Correspondence to Remy Gatins.

Additional information

Communicated by B. W. Hoeksema

Remy Gatins and Pablo Saenz-Agudelo contributed equally to this work.

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Gatins, R., Saenz-Agudelo, P., Scott, A. et al. Development and characterization of new polymorphic microsatellite markers in four sea anemones: Entacmaea quadricolor, Heteractis magnifica, Stichodactyla gigantea, and Stichodactyla mertensii . Mar Biodiv 48, 1283–1290 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-016-0576-0

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