Population genetic structure of the Pocillopora damicornis morphospecies along Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia

The effective management of a coral reef system relies on a detailed understanding of the population structure of dominant habitat-forming species. For some corals, however, high levels of phenotypic plasticity have made species delineation based on morphological characteristics alone unreliable, suggesting that previous studies of population genetic structure may have been influenced by the inclusion of multiple genetic lineages in the analyses. We examined the population structure of the Pocillopora damicornis morphospecies along the World Heritage Ningaloo Coast, Western Australia, and recovered 2 mitochondrial haplotypes from sympatrically occurring colonies possessing morphological characteristics consistent with taxonomic classification of P. damicornis. Despite a high degree of genetic differentiation between these lineages, we detected low levels of unidirectional admixture between them, suggesting that reproductive barriers are not fully developed. We found dual modes of reprod...

珊瑚礁系统的有效管理依赖于对优势造礁物种种群结构的详细认知。然而，对于某些珊瑚而言，高水平的表型可塑性（Phenotypic Plasticity）使得仅基于形态特征的物种界定（Species Delineation）并不可靠，这表明先前关于种群遗传结构（Population Genetic Structure）的研究可能因分析中纳入多个遗传谱系（Genetic Lineages）而受到影响。我们研究了西澳大利亚世界遗产宁格鲁海岸沿线的Pocillopora damicornis形态种（Morphospecies）的种群结构，并从形态特征符合P. damicornis分类学分类（Taxonomic Classification）的同域分布群体（Sympatrically Occurring Colonies）中发现了2种线粒体单倍型（Mitochondrial Haplotypes）。尽管这些谱系间存在高度遗传分化（Genetic Differentiation），但我们检测到它们之间存在低水平的单向基因交流（Unidirectional Admixture），这表明生殖隔离（Reproductive Barriers）尚未完全形成。我们发现了双重繁殖模式（Dual Modes of Reproduction）...