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A genetic approach to the origin of Millepora sp. in the eastern Atlantic

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An Erratum to this article was published on 19 May 2015

Abstract

Many species have experienced recent range expansions due to human-mediated processes, such as the unintentional transport on ships or plastic waste and ocean warming, which facilitates many tropical species to tolerate living beyond their normal limit of distribution, with a potential impact on autochthonous assemblages. In September 2008, three colonies of the fire coral Millepora sp. (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) were found on the southeastern coast of Tenerife (Canary Islands), though this species had been previously described to have a circumtropical distribution with Cape Verde Islands as its northern limit of distribution in the eastern Atlantic. The aim of this study was to determine the origin of these new colonies in the Canary Islands (11°N of its previously known northernmost limit of distribution) using variation in the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene as a molecular marker. In order to do that, Millepora samples from Tenerife and Cape Verde Islands were collected for molecular analyses, and COI sequences from Caribbean samples listed in GenBank were also included in the analysis. Our results showed that all the specimens from Tenerife were genetically identical, suggesting that the colonization of the Canary Islands was the result of a very recent and strong founder effect. The nucleotide sequences of the samples from the Cape Verde and the Canary Islands were closer to the Caribbean than between themselves, pointing to the Caribbean population as the source population for both archipelagos, through independent founder events. The fact that Millepora sp. arrived to Cape Verde long before arriving to the Canaries (pleistocene fossils have been found in that archipelago) suggests that the habitat requirements for this species did not exist before in the Canarian archipelago. Therefore, the rising seawater temperatures recently registered in the Canary Islands could have facilitated the settlement of reef-forming corals drifting across the two basins of the Atlantic.

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Acknowledgments

This research has been supported by a grant from Gobierno de Canarias ACIISI “PROYECTO ESTRUCTURANTE EN CIENCIAS MARINAS: GENMOLBIO” (FEDER) to C. López and by the Programa de Cooperación Transnacional Madeira-Azores-Canarias (MAC 2007-2013), in the context of the Canarias-Campus de Excelencia Internacional: ‘Educar para Conservar el Mar’ (ECOMAR-SEMACA). We would like to thank José Carlos Mendoza, José Carlos Hernández, Carlos Sangil and David Martínez for making the trip to Cape Verde a great trip and to the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biología Animal, Edafología y Geología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Avenida Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez, s/n., 38206, La Laguna (Tenerife), Spain

    C. López, S. Clemente & A. Brito

  2. Departamento de Engenharias e Ciências do Mar., Universidad de Cabo Verde, Praia, Cape Verde

    C. Almeida

  3. Instituto de Enfermedades Tropicales y Salud Pública de Canarias, Genética. Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Avenida Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez, s/n., 38206, La Laguna (Tenerife), Spain

    M. Hernández

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  1. C. López
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Correspondence to C. López.

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Communicated by Biology Editor Dr. Mark Vermeij

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López, C., Clemente, S., Almeida, C. et al. A genetic approach to the origin of Millepora sp. in the eastern Atlantic. Coral Reefs 34, 631–638 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-015-1260-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-015-1260-8

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