Exaiptasia diaphana from the Great Barrier Reef: a valuable resource for coral symbiosis research. Exaiptasia diaphana strain:AIMS1-4

The sea anemone, Exaiptasia diaphana, commonly known as Exaiptasia pallida or Aiptasia pallida, has become increasingly popular as a model for cnidarian-microbiome symbiosis studies due to its relatively rapid growth, ability to reproduce sexually and asexually, and symbiosis with diverse prokaryotes and the same microalgal symbionts (family Symbiodiniaceae) as its coral relatives. Clonal E. diaphana strains from Hawaii, the Atlantic Ocean, and Red Sea are now established for use in research. We introduce Great Barrier Reef (GBR)-sourced E. diaphana strains as additions to the model repertoire. Data provided here includes sequences of the 18S rRNA gene to confirm the anemones as E. diaphana, with genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism analysis revealing four distinct genotypes. Exaiptasia-specific inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR)-derived sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) markers and gene loci data are also provided.