Superclone Expansion, Long-Distance Clonal Dispersal and Local Genetic Structuring in the Coral Pocillopora damicornis Type β in Reunion Island, South Western Indian Ocean.

ABSTRACT: The scleractinian coral Pocillopora damicornis type β is known to present a mixed reproduction mode: through sexual reproduction, new genotypes are created, while asexual reproduction insures their propagation. In order to investigate the relative proportion of each reproduction mode in P. damicornis type β populations from Reunion Island, Indian Ocean, clonal propagation along the west coast was assessed through four sampling sites with increasing geographical distance between sites. Coral colonies were sampled either exhaustively, randomly or haphazardly within each site, and genotypic diversity was assessed using 13 microsatellite loci over a total of 510 P. damicornis type β determined a posteriori from their mtDNA haplotype (a 840 bp sequenced fragment of the Open Reading Frame). Over

SUBMITTER: Gelin P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5222339 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature