Weak prezygotic isolating mechanisms in threatened Caribbean Acropora corals.

ABSTRACT: The Caribbean corals, Acropora palmata and A. cervicornis, recently have undergone drastic declines primarily as a result of disease. Previous molecular studies have demonstrated that these species form a hybrid (A. prolifera) that varies in abundance throughout the range of the parental distribution. There is variable unidirectional introgression across loci and sites of A. palmata genes flowing into A. cervicornis. Here we examine the efficacy of prezygotic reproductive isolating mechanisms within these corals including spawning times and choice and no-choice fertilization crosses. We show that these species have subtly different mean but overlapping spawning times, suggesting that temporal isolation is likely not an effective barrier to hybridization. We found species-specific differenc

SUBMITTER: Fogarty ND 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3279358 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature