title: DNA barcoding reveals the coral "laboratory-rat", Stylophora pistillata encompasses multiple identities.
abstract: Stylophora pistillata is a widely used coral "lab-rat" species with highly variable morphology and a broad biogeographic range (Red Sea to western central Pacific). Here we show, by analysing Cytochorme Oxidase I sequences, from 241 samples across this range, that this taxon in fact comprises four deeply divergent clades corresponding to the Pacific-Western Australia, Chagos-Madagascar-South Africa, Gulf of Aden-Zanzibar-Madagascar, and Red Sea-Persian/Arabian Gulf-Kenya. On the basis of the fossil record of Stylophora, these four clades diverged from one another 51.5-29.6 Mya, i.e., long before the closure of the Tethyan connection between the tropical Indo-West Pacific and Atlantic in the early Miocene (16-24 Mya) and should be recognised as four distinct species. These findings have implications for comparative ecological and/or physiological studies carried out using Stylophora pistillata as a model species, and highlight the fact that phenotypic plasticity, thought to be common in scleractinian corals, can mask significant genetic variation.
authors.affiliation: Biodiversity Research Centre, Academia Sinica, Nangang, Taipei 115, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shashank
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Keshavmurthy
authors.forename: Sung-Yin
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Ada
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alamaru
authors.forename: Yao-Yang
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pichon
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Obura
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fontana
authors.forename: Stephane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Palmas
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Stefani
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Benzoni
authors.forename: Angus
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: MacDonald
authors.forename: Annika M E
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Noreen
authors.forename: Chienshun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Carden C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Wallace
authors.forename: Ruby Moothein
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Pillay
authors.forename: Vianney
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Denis
authors.forename: Affendi Yang
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Amri
authors.forename: James D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Reimer
authors.forename: Takuma
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mezaki
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sheppard
authors.forename: Yossi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Loya
authors.forename: Avidor
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abelson
authors.forename: Mohammed Suleiman
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Mohammed
authors.forename: Andrew C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: Pargol Ghavam
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Mostafavi
authors.forename: Budiyanto A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Suharsono
authors.forename: Chaolun Allen
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000235:genetics*; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D010802:Phylogeny; D012015:Reference Standards; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV