title: Full-sibs in cohorts of newly settled coral reef fishes.
abstract: Reef fishes exhibit a bipartite life cycle where a benthic adult stage is preceded by a pelagic dispersal phase during which larvae are presumed to be mixed and transported by oceanic currents. Genetic analyses based on twelve microsatellite loci of 181 three-spot dascyllus (Dascyllus trimaculatus) that settled concurrently on a small reef in French Polynesia revealed 11 groups of siblings (1 full sibs and 10 half-sibs). This is the first evidence that fish siblings can journey together throughout their entire planktonic dispersal phase (nearly a month long for three-spot dascyllus). Our findings have critical implications for the dynamics and genetic structure of fish populations, as well as for the design of marine protected areas and management of fisheries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, United States of America. bernardi@ucsc.edu
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bernardi
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Beldade
authors.forename: Sally J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Holbrook
authors.forename: Russell J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Schmitt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D015331:Cohort Studies; D057894:Coral Reefs; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005260:Female; D056426:Genetic Loci / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D010473:Perciformes / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012615:Sea Anemones; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial