Genomic patterns in <i>Acropora cervicornis</i> show extensive population structure and variable genetic diversity

Drury, Crawford; Schopmeyer, Stephanie; Goergen, Elizabeth A.; Bartels, Erich; Nedimyer, Ken; Johnson, Meaghan E.; Maxwell, Kerry; Galván, Victor; Manfrino, Carrie; Lirman, Diego

doi:10.1002/ece3.3184

Cited by 49 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…Nevertheless, 12 genets were outplanted at this site and suffered high bleaching stress, with at least 75% of ramets bleaching in all genets (Drury, Manzello, et al, ), including three different genets from that site. In addition, FRRP corals were sampled across 14 sites spanning ~60 km, likely capturing much of the natural variability in this region (Drury, Schopmeyer, et al, ). Although our data do not allow for direct comparisons of these trends, we think that a link between aggregation type and bleaching response is suggested by the data and warrants further investigation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clonal diversity impacts coral cover in Acropora cervicornis thickets: Potential relationships between density, growth, and polymorphisms

Drury

Greer

Baums

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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As coral reefs decline, cryptic sources of resistance and resilience to stress may be increasingly important for the persistence of these communities. Among these sources, inter‐ and intraspecific diversity remain understudied on coral reefs but extensively impact a variety of traits in other ecosystems. We use a combination of field and sequencing data at two sites in Florida and two in the Dominican Republic to examine clonal diversity and genetic differentiation of high‐ and low‐density aggregations of the threatened coral Acropora cervicornis in the Caribbean. We find that high‐density aggregations called thickets are composed of up to 30 genotypes at a single site, but 47% of genotypes are also found as isolated, discrete colonies outside these aggregations. Genet–ramet ratios are comparable for thickets (0.636) and isolated colonies after rarefaction (0.569), suggesting the composition of each aggregation is not substantially different and highlighting interactions between colonies as a potential influence on structure. There are no differences in growth rate, but a significant positive correlation between genotypic diversity and coral cover, which may be due to the influence of interactions between colonies on survivorship or fragment retention during asexual reproduction. Many polymorphisms distinguish isolated colonies from thickets despite the shared genotypes found here, including putative nonsynonymous mutations that change amino acid sequence in 25 loci. These results highlight intraspecific diversity as a density‐dependent factor that may impact traits important for the structure and function of coral reefs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clonal diversity impacts coral cover in Acropora cervicornis thickets: Potential relationships between density, growth, and polymorphisms

Drury

Greer

Baums

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Standing variation in coral populations has been resolved in studies both within and among populations for many species (Ayre & Hughes, , ; Barshis et al, ; Baums, Boulay, Polato, & Hellberg, ; Baums, Johnson, Devlin‐Durante, & Miller, ; Baums, Miller, & Hellberg, , ; Bay & Palumbi, ; Cros, Toonen, Davies, & Karl, ; Davies, Treml, Kenkel, & Matz, ; Dixon et al, ; Drury et al, ; Drury, Schopmeyer, et al, ; Dziedzic et al, ; Hemond & Vollmer, ; Howells et al, ; Kenkel, Goodbody‐Gringley, et al, ; Rippe et al, ; Serrano et al, , ; Smith‐Keune & van Oppen, ; Vollmer & Palumbi, ). Although these differences are putatively neutral, they are indicative of the genetic mosaic that most coral reefs represent.…”

Section: The Adaptive Capacity Of Coralsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience in reef‐building corals: The ecological and evolutionary importance of the host response to thermal stress

Drury

2020

Molecular Ecology

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Coral reefs are under extreme threat due to a number of stressors, but temperature increases due to changing climate are the most severe. Rising ocean temperatures coupled with local extremes lead to extensive bleaching, where the coral‐algal symbiosis breaks down and corals may die, compromising the structure and function of reefs. Although the symbiotic nature of the coral colony has historically been a focus of research on coral resilience, the host itself is a foundational component in the response to thermal stress. Fixed effects in the coral host set trait baselines through evolutionary processes, acting on many loci of small effect to create mosaics of thermal tolerance across latitudes and individual coral reefs. These genomic differences can be strongly heritable, producing wide variation among clones of different genotypes or families of a specific larval cross. Phenotypic plasticity is overlaid on these baselines and a growing body of knowledge demonstrates the potential for acclimatization of reef‐building corals through a variety of mechanisms that promote resilience and stress tolerance. The long‐term persistence of coral reefs will require many of these mechanisms to adjust to warmer temperatures within a generation, bridging the gap to reproductive events that allow recombination of standing diversity and adaptive change. Business‐as‐usual climate scenarios will probably lead to the loss of some coral populations or species in the future, so the interaction between intragenerational effects and evolutionary pressure is critical for the survival of reefs.

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“…Measuring levels of gene flow can inform the potential for PALs to penetrate throughout a species range and allows assessment of the efficacy of AGF and selective breeding to fast-track adaptation. Regional differentiation has also been de- Drury, Schopmeyer, et al, 2017;Foster et al, 2012;Howells, Abrego, Meyer, Kirk, & Burt, 2016;Rippe et al, 2017;Underwood, Richards, Berry, & Gilmour, 2017). Contrary to initial assumptions of complete connectivity in marine systems, corals vary in their dispersal ability and genetic connectivity (reviewed in Jones et al, 2009;van Oppen & Gates, 2006).…”

Section: Is the Natur Al R Ate Of Southward G Ene Flow Of Putative mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Greater genome diversity (heterozygosity) has also been linked to fitter individuals that exhibit comparatively high resilience Drury, Manzello, et al, 2017;Drury, Schopmeyer, et al, 2017;Ellegren & Galtier, 2016), thereby providing better source material targets for AGF. 4.…”

Section: Naturally High Genetic Diversity (Devlin-durante and Baums 20mentioning

confidence: 99%

The active spread of adaptive variation for reef resilience

Quigley

Bay

Oppen

2019

Ecology and Evolution

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The speed at which species adapt depends partly on the rates of beneficial adaptation generation and how quickly they spread within and among populations. Natural rates of adaptation of corals may not be able to keep pace with climate warming. Several interventions have been proposed to fast‐track thermal adaptation, including the intentional translocation of warm‐adapted adults or their offspring (assisted gene flow, AGF) and the ex situ crossing of warm‐adapted corals with conspecifics from cooler reefs (hybridization or selective breeding) and field deployment of those offspring. The introgression of temperature tolerance loci into the genomic background of cooler‐environment corals aims to facilitate adaptation to warming while maintaining fitness under local conditions. Here we use research on selective sweeps and connectivity to understand the spread of adaptive variants as it applies to AGF on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), focusing on the genus Acropora. Using larval biophysical dispersal modeling, we estimate levels of natural connectivity in warm‐adapted northern corals. We then model the spread of adaptive variants from single and multiple reefs and assess if the natural and assisted spread of adaptive variants will occur fast enough to prepare receiving central and southern populations given current rates of warming. We also estimate fixation rates and spatial extent of fixation under multiple release scenarios to inform intervention design. Our results suggest that thermal tolerance is unlikely to spread beyond northern reefs to the central and southern GBR without intervention, and if it does, 30+ generations are needed for adaptive gene variants to reach fixation even under multiple release scenarios. We argue that if translocation, breeding, and reseeding risks are managed, AGF using multiple release reefs can be beneficial for the restoration of coral populations. These interventions should be considered in addition to conventional management and accompanied by strong mitigation of CO2 emissions.

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Genomic patterns in Acropora cervicornis show extensive population structure and variable genetic diversity

Cited by 49 publications

References 83 publications

Clonal diversity impacts coral cover in Acropora cervicornis thickets: Potential relationships between density, growth, and polymorphisms

Clonal diversity impacts coral cover in Acropora cervicornis thickets: Potential relationships between density, growth, and polymorphisms

Resilience in reef‐building corals: The ecological and evolutionary importance of the host response to thermal stress

The active spread of adaptive variation for reef resilience

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