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A fluorescence-based quantitative real-time PCR assay for accurate Pocillopora damicornis species identification
- Source :
- Coral Reefs. 35:895-899
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2016.
-
Abstract
- Pocillopora damicornis is one of the most extensively studied coral species globally, but high levels of phenotypic plasticity within the genus make species identification based on morphology alone unreliable. As a result, there is a compelling need to develop cheap and time-effective molecular techniques capable of accurately distinguishing P. damicornis from other congeneric species. Here, we develop a fluorescence-based quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) assay to genotype a single nucleotide polymorphism that accurately distinguishes P. damicornis from other morphologically similar Pocillopora species. We trial the assay across colonies representing multiple Pocillopora species and then apply the assay to screen samples of Pocillopora spp. collected at regional scales along the coastline of Western Australia. This assay offers a cheap and time-effective alternative to Sanger sequencing and has broad applications including studies on gene flow, dispersal, recruitment and physiological thresholds of P. damicornis.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Sanger sequencing
Phenotypic plasticity
Species complex
biology
010604 marine biology & hydrobiology
Pocillopora damicornis
Aquatic Science
biology.organism_classification
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Gene flow
symbols.namesake
Evolutionary biology
Genotype
Botany
symbols
Biological dispersal
Pocillopora
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14320975 and 07224028
- Volume :
- 35
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Coral Reefs
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........57efd4da68f0ce777f32c9029269f8a4