title: Phylogenomics provides new insight into evolutionary relationships and genealogical discordance in the reef-building coral genus Acropora.
abstract: Understanding the genetic basis of reproductive isolation is a long-standing goal of speciation research. In recently diverged populations, genealogical discordance may reveal genes and genomic regions that contribute to the speciation process. Previous work has shown that conspecific colonies of Acropora that spawn in different seasons (spring and autumn) are associated with highly diverged lineages of the phylogenetic marker PaxC Here, we used 10 034 single-nucleotide polymorphisms to generate a genome-wide phylogeny and compared it with gene genealogies from the PaxC intron and the mtDNA Control Region in 20 species of Acropora, including three species with spring- and autumn-spawning cohorts. The PaxC phylogeny separated conspecific autumn and spring spawners into different genetic clusters in all three species; however, this pattern was not supported in two of the three species at the genome level, suggesting a selective connection between PaxC and reproductive timing in Acropora corals. This genome-wide phylogeny provides an improved foundation for resolving phylogenetic relationships in Acropora and, combined with PaxC, provides a fascinating platform for future research into regions of the genome that influence reproductive isolation and speciation in corals.
authors.affiliation: School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia natalie.rosser@research.uwa.edu.au.
authors.forename: Natalie L
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8289-3898
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Rosser
authors.affiliation: School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Luke
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA.
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stankowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Aquatic Zoology, Western Australian Museum, 49 Kew Street, Welshpool, Western Australia 6106, Australia.
authors.forename: Zoe T
authors.initials: ZT
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.affiliation: School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: W Jason
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Kennington
authors.affiliation: School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000235:genetics*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D049810:Genetic Speciation; D007438:Introns; D010802:Phylogeny; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D060047:Reproductive Isolation; D012621:Seasons
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial
keywords: PaxC; control region; phylogeny; spawning; speciation; temporal reproductive isolation