title: Beyond the Coral Triangle: high genetic diversity and near panmixia in Singapore's populations of the broadcast spawning sea starProtoreaster nodosus.
abstract: The Coral Triangle is widely considered the most important centre of marine biodiversity in Asia while areas on its periphery such as the South China Sea, have received much less interest. Here, we demonstrate that a small population of the knobbly sea starProtoreaster nodosusin Singapore has similarly high levels of genetic diversity as comparable Indonesian populations from the Coral Triangle. The high genetic diversity of this population is remarkable because it is maintained despite decades of continued anthropogenic disturbance. We postulate that it is probably due to broadcast spawning which is likely to maintain high levels of population connectivity. To test this, we analysed 6140 genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci for Singapore's populations and demonstrate a pattern of near panmixia. We here document a second case of high genetic diversity and low genetic structure for a broadcast spawner in Singapore, which suggests that such species have high resilience against anthropogenic disturbances. The study demonstrates the feasibility and power of using genome-wide SNPs for connectivity studies of marine invertebrates without a sequenced genome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences , National University of Singapore , 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543 , Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: Y C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Tay
authors.affiliation: Centre for Liveable Cities, Ministry of National Development , The URA Centre , 45 Maxwell Road no. 07-01, Singapore 069118 , Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: M W P
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Chng
authors.affiliation: DHI Water and Environment (S) Pte Ltd , 1 Cleantech Loop, Cleantech One, no. 03-05, Singapore 637141 , Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: W W G
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Sew
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences , National University of Singapore , 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543 , Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: F E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Rheindt
authors.affiliation: National Parks Board , 1 Cluny Road, Singapore 259569 , Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: K P P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Tun
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Republic of Singapore; Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: R
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4452-2885
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Meier
keywords: Protoreaster nodosus; broadcast spawner; ddRADseq; genetic diversity; species resilience