A next generation approach to species delimitation reveals the role of hybridization in a cryptic species complex of corals.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Our ability to investigate processes shaping the evolutionary diversification of corals (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) is limited by a lack of understanding of species boundaries. Discerning species of corals has been challenging due to a multitude of factors, including homoplasious and plastic morphological characters and the use of molecular markers that are either not informative or have not completely sorted. Hybridization can also blur species boundaries by leading to incongruence between morphology and genetics. We used traditional DNA barcoding and restriction-site associated DNA sequencing combined with coalescence-based and allele-frequency methods to elucidate species boundaries and simultaneously examine the potential role of hybridization in a speciose genus of octocor

SUBMITTER: Quattrini AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6555025 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature