title: Assessment of three mitochondrial loci variability for the crown-of-thorns starfish: a first insight into Acanthaster phylogeography.
abstract: Acanthaster planci (L.) is one of the major threats to coral reefs, whose genetic diversity has been mainly studied with allozymes. Allozymes revealed the low genetic differentiation between A. planci populations in the Indo-Pacific area. We obtained sequences of A. planci from Kenya, Mayotte and Madagascar at the three loci cytochrome oxydase subunit I (COI), 16S rDNA (16S) and five tRNAs, analysed together with available sequences of Acanthaster from the Pacific Ocean. The level of genetic diversity varied among the three loci, tRNAs being on average three times less divergent than COI and 16S genes. The genus Acanthaster appeared monophyletic, the two species A. brevispinus (Fisher) and A. planci forming distinct clades in agreement with data from morphology and systematics. The A. planci clade split into a West Indian Ocean group and a Pacific group, in agreement with allozyme data on population differentiation.
authors.affiliation: Université de la Méditerranée, centre d'océanologie de Marseille, station marine d'Endoume, chemin de la Batterie-des-Lions, 13007 Marseille, France. karin.gerard@univmed.fr
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gérard
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Roby
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chevalier
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Thomassin
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chenuil
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Féral
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia; D017753:Ecosystem; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005843:Geography; D019156:Indian Ocean; D007630:Kenya; D008270:Madagascar; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011156:Population Density; D013215:Starfish / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000648:ultrastructure