Development of Microsatellite Markers for the Hermatypic Coral &lt;i&gt;Porites lutea&lt;/i&gt;

Fuyu Li,Jing Hou,Shiyao Li,Dandan Chen,Yuanchao Li,Yan Wang,Daoru Wang

doi:10.5376/ijms.2020.10.0003

Abstract

By mining the EST and genomic microsatellite sequence resources of Porites species in GenBank, and using interspecific amplification and resequencing, we developed 20 microsatellite markers for the stony coral Porites lutea , meanwhile, validated and excluded 43 microsatellite markers of its symbiotic zooxanthella. These markers of P. lutea were genotyped in one wild population (n=16) from the southwest of Hainan Island fringing reefs. Nineteen of the 20 markers showed polymorphism. The number of alleles was 2~7 (mean 3.5±1.8), and the observed heterozygosity ( H o ) and expected heterozygosity ( H e ) were 0.06~0.94 (mean 0.34±0.29) and 0.18~0.83 (mean 0.57±0.20), respectively. Four markers remained deviated from the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) after multiple comparison correction for Bonferroin ( P HWE < 0.05). This is the first set of microsatellite markers of P. lutea . They should be useful for the research on the genetic diversity and connectivity of this species and the conservation of endangered coral reef ecosystems and reef-building coral communities in the Indo-Pacific region.

Highlights

Coral reef ecosystems contain the highest density of marine biodiversity (Carpenter et al, 2008) and are highly productive
Of the 83 P. lobate genomic microsatellites, 28 (33.7%) were able to amplify in Poretis lutea (PL) symbionts, 8 (9.6%) and 20 (24.0%) microsatellite markers were identified as PL coral and zooxanthella, respectively
2.1 Genetic characteristics of microsatellite markers from different sources Twenty microsatellite markers of PL corals were identified in this study, most of these markers showed high polymorphism

Summary

Introduction

Coral reef ecosystems contain the highest density of marine biodiversity (Carpenter et al, 2008) and are highly productive. A reef-building coral remains in its adult form and changes the size and genetic structure of its aggregate populations by the migration of planktonic larvae along with the current (Polato et al, 2005) This brief diffusion period plays an important role in the maintenance of its population and the expansion of its habitat (Gaines and Bertness, 1992). In this study, using the EST and genomic microsatellite sequences of the Porites species in GenBank, 20 P. lutea and 43 zooxanthella microsatellite markers were developed, and confirmed by interspecific amplification and re-sequencing These markers could be powerful tools for fine analysis of population genetic structure and connectivity of the species. The genetic diversity and larval migration path can be revealed, which can provide scientific basis for the development of the protection strategy of coral reefs

Methods

Results

Conclusion