Journal article
Genotype - environment correlations in corals from the Great Barrier Reef
Petra Lundgren, Juan C Vera, Lesa Peplow, Stephanie Manel, Madeleine JH van Oppen
BMC GENETICS | BMC | Published : 2013
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Knowledge of genetic markers that are correlated to stress tolerance may improve spatial mapping of reef vulnerability and can inform restoration efforts, including the choice of genotypes for breeding and reseeding. In this manuscript we present two methods for screening transcriptome data for candidate genetic markers in two reef building corals, Acropora millepora and Pocillopora damicornis (types α and β). In A. millepora, Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) were pre-selected by targeting genes believed to be involved in the coral thermal stress responses. In P. damicornis (type α and β), SNPs showing varying allele frequencies between two populations from distinct environ..
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Awarded by NSF
Funding Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre (RRRC), the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF) and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). A travel grant from the Australian Academy of Science allowed P. Lundgren to establish the collaboration and bioinformatics support from of JC Vera at Penn State University. JC Vera was funded by NSF grant IOS-0950416.The authors would like to thank colleagues and friends who have contributed to the coral collections. Secchi depth data were provided by B. Schaffelke and M. Furnas (AIMS) and R. Coles (Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries). All interpolations were done by G. De'ath (AIMS) and original maps were vectorised by E. Lawrey (e-Atlas, AIMS). Thanks also to T. Simmonds and G. Torda for help with creating the maps and figures. S Manel was supported by the Institut Universitaire de France and was hosted by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University during the onset of collaborations for this project.