Data from: How old are you? Genet age estimates in a clonal animal

Foundation species such as redwoods, seagrasses and corals are often long-lived and clonal. Genets may consist of hundreds of members (ramets) and originated hundreds to thousands of years ago. As climate change and other stressors exert selection pressure on species, the demography of populations changes. Yet, because size does not indicate age in clonal organisms, demographic models are missing data necessary to predict the resilience of many foundation species. Here, we correlate somatic mutations with genet age of corals and provide the first, preliminary estimates of genet age in a colonial animal. We observed somatic mutations at five microsatellite loci in rangewide samples of the endangered coral, Acropora palmata (n = 3352). Colonies harboured 342 unique mutations in 147 genets. Genet age ranged from 30 to 838 years assuming a mutation rate of 1.195−04 per locus per year based on colony growth rates and 236 to 6500 years assuming a mutation rate of 1.542−05 per locus per year based on sea level changes to habitat availability. Long-lived A. palmata genets imply a large capacity to tolerate past environmental change, and yet recent mass mortality events in A. palmata suggest that capacity is now being frequently exceeded.诸如红杉、海草与珊瑚这类基础物种（foundation species），通常寿命悠长且呈克隆性生长。基株（genet）可由数百个分株（ramet）构成，其起源可追溯至数百年乃至数千年前。随着气候变化与其他胁迫因子对物种施加选择压力，种群的统计学特征随之改变。然而，由于克隆生物的个体大小无法反映其年龄，现有种群统计学模型缺乏预测多数基础物种恢复力所需的关键数据。本研究将体细胞突变（somatic mutations）与珊瑚基株年龄相关联，并首次对群居动物的基株年龄作出初步估算。我们在濒危鹿角杯形珊瑚（Acropora palmata）的全分布区样本（n=3352）中，于5个微卫星位点（microsatellite loci）检测到体细胞突变。147个基株对应的珊瑚群体共携带342种独特突变。若以基于珊瑚群体生长速率得到的每年每一位点1.195×10⁻⁴的突变率计算，基株年龄区间为30至838年；若以基于海平面变化对栖息地可获得性的影响得到的每年每一位点1.542×10⁻⁵的突变率计算，则基株年龄区间为236至6500年。长寿的鹿角杯形珊瑚基株意味着其具备较强的耐受过往环境变化的能力，但近期该物种发生的大规模死亡事件表明，这一耐受能力如今正频繁被突破。