Cryptic diversity and spatial genetic variation in the coral Acropora tenuis and its endosymbionts across the Great Barrier Reef.

ABSTRACT: Genomic studies are uncovering extensive cryptic diversity within reef-building corals, suggesting that evolutionarily and ecologically relevant diversity is highly underestimated in the very organisms that structure coral reefs. Furthermore, endosymbiotic algae within coral host species can confer adaptive responses to environmental stress and may represent additional axes of coral genetic variation that are not constrained by taxonomic divergence of the cnidarian host. Here, we examine genetic variation in a common and widespread, reef-building coral, Acropora tenuis, and its associated endosymbiotic algae along the entire expanse of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). We use SNPs derived from genome-wide sequencing to characterize the cnidarian coral host and organelles from zooxanthel

SUBMITTER: Matias AMA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9923489 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature