Molecular and morphological supertree of stony corals (Anthozoa: Scleractinia) using matrix representation parsimony

Abstract

The supertree algorithm matrix representation with parsimony was used to combine existing hypotheses of coral relationships and provide the most comprehensive species-level estimate of scleractinian phylogeny, comprised of 353 species (27% of extant species), 141 genera (63%) and 23 families (92%) from all seven suborders. The resulting supertree offers a guide for future studies in coral systematics by highlighting regions of concordance and conflict in existing source phylogenies. It should also prove useful in formal comparative studies of character evolution. Phylogenetic effort within Scleractinia has been taxonomically uneven, with a third of studies focussing on the Acroporidae or its most diverse genera. Sampling has also been geographically non-uniform, as tropical, reef-forming taxa have been considered twice as often as non-reef species. The supertree indicated that source trees concur on numerous aspects of coral relationships, such as the division between robust versus complex corals and the distant relationship between families in Archaeocoeniina. The supertree also supported the existence of a large, taxonomically diverse and monophyletic group of corals with many Atlantic representatives having exsert corallites. Another large, unanticipated clade consisted entirely of solitary deep-water species from three families. Important areas of ambiguity include the relationship of Astrocoeniidae to Pocilloporidae and the relative positions of several, mostly deep-water genera of Caryophylliidae. Conservative grafting of species at the base of congeneric groups with uncontroversial monophyletic status resulted in a more comprehensive, though less resolved tree of 1016 taxa.

Systematic and Biogeographical Patterns in the Reproductive Biology of Scleractinian Corals

“…Kerr, A. Baird, T. Hughes, submitted) found that transitions between sexuality occur about half as frequently as transitions between reproductive modes. Using a "supertree" phylogeny (Kerr 2005) of 242 species of scleractinian corals for which data on both sexuality and mode of reproduction were available, they also found that transitions from brooding to spawning outnumbered reverse transitions by more than two to one. The analysis overwhelmingly supported gonochorism as the ancestral sexual state, but was ambiguous as to reproductive mode (Figure 2).…”

“…Using more recently compiled generic records of fossil occurrence and a more complete data set of coral reproductive traits, Baird and colleagues (A. Baird, A. Kerr, M. Kosnik, submitted) demonstrated that there was, in fact, no association between either sexuality or mode of reproduction and extinction in the Oligocene. They concluded, Figure 2 (a,b) Sexual system (light blue, hermaphroditic; orange, gonochoric) and reproductive mode (red, brood planulae; green, spawn gametes) in 289 species of scleractinian corals mapped onto the supertree phylogeny of Kerr (2005). …”

“…In this time, the number of coral species for which reproductive traits are known has doubled and the geographical extent of coral reproduction studies has increased dramatically, particularly in regions such as the Coral Triangle that were previously underrepresented. In addition, the molecular phylogenies of Romano & Cairns (2000), Fukami et al (2004Fukami et al ( , 2008, and Kerr (2005) have resulted in a complete revision of the systematics of the order and provided a new, robust working hypothesis of scleractinian phylogeny. These recent advances enable the evolution of life-history traits in corals to be examined using the techniques of comparative biology for the first time.…”

Correlated evolution of sex and reproductive mode in corals (Anthozoa: Scleractinia)

“…(b) Phylogeny and taxonomy We used the largest available phylogeny of Scleractinia [18]. Large phylogenies possess more detailed character information and the statistical power to consider more complex patterns of character evolution [19].…”

Fluorescence color diversity of great barrier reef corals

“…11 Subclade C1 contains representatives from several coral families and may correspond to a grouping of these families into one of the Robusta subclades in accordance to the novel coral phylogeny. 11,28 Subclade C2 contains green and cyan proteins from Archaeocoeniina suborder (families Acroporidae and Pocilloporidae) and a cyan protein from the sea anemone A. majano (amajCFP, original name amFP486). 11 The C3 subclade is again a mixture of coral suborders.…”