Novel Polymorphic Microsatellite Markers Reveal Genetic Differentiation between Two Sympatric Types of Galaxea fascicularis

PLoS One. 2015 Jul 6;10(7):e0130176. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0130176. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

The reef-building, scleractinian coral, Galaxea fascicularis, is classified into soft and hard types, based on nematocyst morphology. This character is correlated with the length of the mitochondrial non-coding region (mt-Long: soft colony type, and nematocysts with wide capsules and long shafts; mt-Short: hard colony type, and nematocysts with thin capsules and short shafts). We isolated and characterized novel polymorphic microsatellite markers for G. fascicularis using next-generation sequencing. Based upon the mitochondrial non-coding region, 53 of the 97 colonies collected were mt-Long (mt-L) and 44 were mt-Short (mt-S). Among the 53 mt-L colonies, 27 loci were identified as amplifiable, polymorphic microsatellite loci, devoid of somatic mutations and free of scoring errors. Eleven of those 27 loci were also amplifiable and polymorphic in the 44 mt-S colonies; these 11 are cross-type microsatellite loci. The other 16 loci were considered useful only for mt-L colonies. These 27 loci identified 10 multilocus lineages (MLLs) among the 53 mt-L colonies (NMLL/N = 0.189), and the 11 cross-type loci identified 7 MLLs in 44 mt-S colonies (NMLL/N = 0.159). Significant genetic differentiation between the two types was detected based on the genetic differentiation index (FST = 0.080, P = 0.001). Bayesian clustering also indicated that these two types are genetically isolated. While nuclear microsatellite genotypes also showed genetic differentiation between mitochondrial types, the mechanism of divergence is not yet clear. These markers will be useful to estimate genetic diversity, differentiation, and connectivity among populations, and to understand evolutionary processes, including divergence of types in G. fascicularis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Anthozoa / genetics*
  • Bayes Theorem
  • DNA, Mitochondrial / genetics
  • Genetic Drift
  • Genetic Markers / genetics*
  • Genetic Variation / genetics*
  • Genotype
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / methods
  • Microsatellite Repeats / genetics*
  • Mitochondria / genetics
  • Mutation / genetics
  • RNA, Untranslated / genetics
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA / methods
  • Sympatry / genetics*

Substances

  • DNA, Mitochondrial
  • Genetic Markers
  • RNA, Untranslated

Grants and funding

This study was supported by a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI grant (25840152 to YN, 25660172 and 26290065 to CS), a Pro Natura Foundation grant for natural conservation of the Nansei Islands to YN (http://www.pronaturajapan.com/), and by the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.