[Coral-List] [Article] A striking example of stability of mitochondrial DNA sequences in corals

Jean-François Flot jean-francois.flot at ds.mpg.de
Wed Jan 29 07:47:06 EST 2014


Dear all,

While reading Sérgio's email, I realized that I forgot to inform the 
List about an article I published some months ago with Mikael Dahl and 
Carl André. In this paper we reported a particularly striking example of 
stability of mitochondrial DNA sequences in corals: namely, the complete 
mitochondrial genomes of Lophelia pertusa cold-water corals from the 
Barents Sea (off Norway) and the Ionian Sea (off Italy) are nearly 
identical (only one base difference) despite a distance of over 7,500 
kilometers. As we wrote in this article: "Identical sequences of a 
630-bp fragment of the cox1 gene was reported for populations of another 
azooxanthellate coral species, Balanophyllia elegans, sampled 3000 km 
apart [Hellberg M., BMC Evol Biol 2006, 6:24], but it is the first time 
that such an extremely low level of variation across several thousand 
kilometers is reported using complete mitochondrial genome sequences. In 
contrast, the only other study that compared complete mitogenomes from 
conspecific corals reported between 3 and 18 intraspecific nucleotide 
differences in three Montastraea species analyzed at a single location 
[Fukami H, Knowlton N., Coral Reefs 2005, 24:410–417]."

Here is the reference:
Flot J-F, Dahl M, André C (2013) Lophelia pertusa corals from the Ionian 
and Barents seas share identical nuclear ITS2 and near-identical 
mitochondrial genome sequences. BMC Research Notes 6:144
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-6-144 (the article is Open Access)

Best regards,
Jean-François


P.S. some of you may also be interested in a recent coral paper I 
co-authored: Adjeroud M, Guérécheau A, Vidal-Dupiol J, Flot J-F, 
Arnaud-Haond S, Bonhomme F (in press) Genetic diversity, clonality and 
connectivity in the scleractinian coral Pocillopora damicornis: a 
multi-scale analysis in an insular, fragmented reef system. Marine 
Biology (http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-013-2355-9).


-------- Message original --------
Sujet: [Coral-List] [Article] Fast-Evolving Mitochondrial DNA in 
Ceriantharia: A Reflection of Hexacorallia Paraphyly?
Date : Tue, 28 Jan 2014 11:02:27 -0200
De : Sérgio Stampar <sergiostampar at gmail.com>
Pour : <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>

> Dear all,
>
> I'm sending this message to share our newly published article that
> discusses some relevant issues within Anthozoa. The systematic position of
> Ceriantharia and the use of DNA barcoding are the main topics.
>
> The article can be freely downloaded at this link -
> http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0086612
>
> Kind regards,
> Sergio



-- 
Jean-François Flot, Ph.D.
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization
Biological Physics and Evolutionary Dynamics
Bunsenstraße 10, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
http://seqphase.mpg.de/publications/


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