ORCID Profile
0000-0003-0440-7169
Current Organisation
University of the Ryukyus
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Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 05-09-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.09.04.260208
Abstract: Coral reefs are the epitome of species ersity, yet the number of described scleractinian coral species, the framework-builders of coral reefs, remains moderate by comparison. DNA sequencing studies are rapidly challenging this notion by exposing a wealth of undescribed ersity, but the evolutionary and ecological significance of this ersity remains largely unclear. Here, we present an annotated genome for one of the most ubiquitous corals in the Indo-Pacific ( Pachyseris speciosa ), and uncover through a comprehensive genomic and phenotypic assessment that it comprises morphologically indistinguishable, but ecologically ergent cryptic lineages. Demographic modelling based on whole-genome resequencing disproved that morphological crypsis was due to recent ergence, and instead indicated ancient morphological stasis. Although the lineages occur sympatrically across shallow and mesophotic habitats, extensive genotyping using a rapid diagnostic assay revealed differentiation of their ecological distributions. Leveraging “common garden” conditions facilitated by the overlapping distributions, we assessed physiological and quantitative skeletal traits and demonstrated concurrent phenotypic differentiation. Lastly, spawning observations of genotyped colonies highlighted the potential role of temporal reproductive isolation in the limited admixture, with consistent genomic signatures in genes related to morphogenesis and reproduction. Overall, our findings demonstrate how ecologically and phenotypically ergent coral species can evolve despite morphological stasis, and provide new leads into the potential mechanisms facilitating such ergence in sympatry. More broadly, they indicate that our current taxonomic framework for reef-building corals may be scratching the surface of the ecologically relevant ersity on coral reefs, consequently limiting our ability to protect or restore this ersity effectively.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-01-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41597-020-00793-8
Abstract: The discovery of multi-species synchronous spawning of scleractinian corals on the Great Barrier Reef in the 1980s stimulated an extraordinary effort to document spawning times in other parts of the globe. Unfortunately, most of these data remain unpublished which limits our understanding of regional and global reproductive patterns. The Coral Spawning Database (CSD) collates much of these disparate data into a single place. The CSD includes 6178 observations (3085 of which were unpublished) of the time or day of spawning for over 300 scleractinian species in 61 genera from 101 sites in the Indo-Pacific. The goal of the CSD is to provide open access to coral spawning data to accelerate our understanding of coral reproductive biology and to provide a baseline against which to evaluate any future changes in reproductive phenology.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2021
DOI: 10.1016/J.CUB.2021.03.028
Abstract: Coral reefs are the epitome of species ersity, yet the number of described scleractinian coral species, the framework-builders of coral reefs, remains moderate by comparison. DNA sequencing studies are rapidly challenging this notion by exposing a wealth of undescribed ersity, but the evolutionary and ecological significance of this ersity remains largely unclear. Here, we present an annotated genome for one of the most ubiquitous corals in the Indo-Pacific (Pachyseris speciosa) and uncover, through a comprehensive genomic and phenotypic assessment, that it comprises morphologically indistinguishable but ecologically ergent lineages. Demographic modeling based on whole-genome resequencing indicated that morphological crypsis (across micro- and macromorphological traits) was due to ancient morphological stasis rather than recent ergence. Although the lineages occur sympatrically across shallow and mesophotic habitats, extensive genotyping using a rapid molecular assay revealed differentiation of their ecological distributions. Leveraging "common garden" conditions facilitated by the overlapping distributions, we assessed physiological and quantitative skeletal traits and demonstrated concurrent phenotypic differentiation. Lastly, spawning observations of genotyped colonies highlighted the potential role of temporal reproductive isolation in the limited admixture, with consistent genomic signatures in genes related to morphogenesis and reproduction. Overall, our findings demonstrate the presence of ecologically and phenotypically ergent coral species without substantial morphological differentiation and provide new leads into the potential mechanisms facilitating such ergence. More broadly, they indicate that our current taxonomic framework for reef-building corals may be scratching the surface of the ecologically relevant ersity on coral reefs, consequently limiting our ability to protect or restore this ersity effectively.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-02-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-018-37619-Y
Abstract: Sex change has been widely studied in animals and plants. However, the conditions favoring sex change, its mode and timing remain poorly known. Here, for the first time in stony corals, we report on a protandrous (youngest in iduals are males) repetitive sex change exhibited by the fungiid coral Herpolitha limax across large spatial scales (the coral reefs of Japan, Jordan and Israel) and temporal scales (2004–2017). In contrast to most corals, this species is a daytime spawner (08:00–10:00 AM) that spawned at the same time/same date across all the study sites. The sporadically scattered populations of H. limax among the coral reefs of Eilat (Israel) and Aqaba (Jordan) exhibited significantly slower growth, earlier sex change, and lower percentages of reproduction and sex change in comparison to the densely aggregated populations in Okinawa (Japan). At all sites, sex ratio varied among years, but was almost always biased towards maleness. Growth rate decreased with size. We conclude that comparable to dioecious plants that display labile sexuality in response to energetic and/or environmental constraints, the repetitive sex change displayed by H. limax increases its overall fitness reinforcing the important role of reproductive plasticity in the Phylum Cnidaria in determining their evolutionary success.
No related grants have been discovered for Saki Harii.