Elucidation of the speciation history of three sister species of crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster spp.) based on genomic analysis.

ABSTRACT: The crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) is a coral predator that is widely distributed in Indo-Pacific Oceans. A previous phylogenetic study using partial mitochondrial sequences suggested that COTS had diverged into four distinct species, but a nuclear genome-based analysis to confirm this was not conducted. To address this, COTS species nuclear genome sequences were analysed here, sequencing Northern Indian Ocean (NIO) and Red Sea (RS) species genomes for the first time, followed by a comparative analysis with the Pacific Ocean (PO) species. Phylogenetic analysis and ADMIXTURE analysis revealed clear divergences between the three COTS species. Furthermore, within the PO species, the phylogenetic position of the Hawaiian sample was further away from the other Pacific-derived samples than expe

SUBMITTER: Yuasa H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8386664 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature