Small-scale genetic structure of coral populations in Palau based on whole mitochondrial genomes: Implications for future coral resilience.

ABSTRACT: The ability of local populations to adapt to future climate conditions is facilitated by a balance between short range dispersal allowing local buildup of adaptively beneficial alleles, and longer dispersal moving these alleles throughout the species range. Reef building corals have relatively low dispersal larvae, but most population genetic studies show differentiation only over 100s of km. Here, we report full mitochondrial genome sequences from 284 tabletop corals (Acropora hyacinthus) from 39 patch reefs in Palau, and show two signals of genetic structure across reef scales from 1 to 55 km. First, divergent mitochondrial DNA haplotypes exist in different proportions from reef to reef, causing Phi_ST values of 0.02 (p = 0.02). Second, closely related sequences o

SUBMITTER: Palumbi SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9923468 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature