Abstract
The Caribbean Acropora corals, A. palmata and A. cervicornis form a hybrid with two broad morphotypes, bushy and palmate. These morphotypes were previously hypothesized to be linked to the hybrid’s maternal species. Here, we expand on this hypothesis by adding samples from across the range and by increasing genetic resolution. We reconstructed complete mitochondrial genomes as a proxy for maternal species. This yielded novel A. palmata haplogroups, only one of which was shared by all three taxa. Experts then evaluated photographs to classify corals to a taxon based on colony morphology. Expert classification revealed less accuracy and confidence in hybrid, and surprisingly A. palmata identification compared to A. cervicornis. No association between the bushy morph and mitochondrial haplogroups was found when mapping hybrid morphotypes to the mitogenome phylogeny. Therefore, mitochondrial haplogroup membership is not predictive of Caribbean acroporid hybrid morphology across the range. Additional work is needed to uncover determinants of colony morphology.
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Acknowledgements
Funding for this project was supported by NSF OCE-1537959 awarded to IBB and NSF OCE-1538469/1929979 awarded to NDF. We thank Hunter Noren, Megan Bock, Leah Harper and Morgan Hightshoe for their assistance in-field photography of the Belize, Curacao and USVI samples. We thank Tyler Smith and Marilyn Brandt for facilitating field work in the USVI and Mark Vermeij for facilitating field work in Curacao. We also thank the participants listed in Table S5 for taking time to complete the survey. Samples from Belize are part of the Caribbean Coral Reef Ecosystems (CCRE) Program, Smithsonian Institution contribution #1046. Permits for samples include Florida: CRF permit numbers CRF-2017-009, CRF-2017-012, NOAA FKNMS permit numbers FKNMS-2011-159-A4, FKNMS-2001-009, FKNMS-2014-148-A2 and FKNMS-2010-130-A, Belize: CITES Permit 0385, 7487 and 7488; Curacao: CITES Permit 16US784243/9 and 12US784243/9; and USVI Department of planning and natural resources, Division of fish and wildlife DFW14017T.
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Kitchen, S.A., Osborne, C.C., Fogarty, N.D. et al. Morphotype is not linked to mitochondrial haplogroups of Caribbean acroporid hybrids. Coral Reefs 41, 829–836 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-021-02135-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-021-02135-5