ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2019
A next generation approach to species delimitation reveals the role of hybridization in a cryptic species complex of corals.
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed.
- Genomic and Phenotypic Delimitation of Species in a Temperate Aquatic Biodiversity Hotspot.Systematic biology · 2026Article
- A comparison of interspecific and intraspecific phenotypic variation in spectral signatures of ferns with robust versus uncertain species boundaries.Journal of plant research · 2026Article
- Contrasting Reproductive and Early Life-History Strategies in Recently Diverged Octocoral Species (Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Integrative Taxonomy Clarifies the Taxonomic Status of the Morphologically Intermediate Form BetweenInsects · 2025Article
- Mito-nuclear discordance reveals introgressive hybridization following vicariance and secondary contact in Iberian scorpions (Buthidae: Buthus).BMC ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Integrative Taxonomy Discovers Two New Species of Digitate Soft Corals in the Urban Waters of China's Greater Bay Area.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Hybridization as driving force for cryptic species diversity in the Caribbean coral genus Madracis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The hidden diversity of Saudi Arabian Red Sea octocorals revealed through a morpho-molecular assessment across bathymetric and latitudinal gradients.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Genus-Scale Taxonomic Resolution Is Appropriate to Study Coral Demographics: A Case Study WithEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- First reference genomes for two mesophotic, reef-building coral species: Leptoseris cf. scabra and Montipora cf. grisea.The Journal of heredity · 2025Article
- Integrating datasets from herbarium specimens and images to treat a Neotropical myrtle species complex.Annals of botany · 2025Article
- Biodiversity and biogeography of zooxanthellate soft corals across the Indo-Pacific.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Bis-Iridoid Glycosides and Triterpenoids fromMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
- Article
- Article
- Skimming genomes for systematics and DNA barcodes of corals.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Integrating cryptic diversity into coral evolution, symbiosis and conservation.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Review
- Efficacy of the 28S rDNA barcode in differentiating Caribbean octocorals.Biodiversity data journal · 2024Article
- Importance of timely metadata curation to the global surveillance of genetic diversity.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundOur ability to investigate processes shaping the evolutionary diversification of corals (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) is limited by a lack of understanding of species boundaries. Discerning species of corals has been challenging due to a multitude of factors, including homoplasious and plastic morphological characters and the use of molecular markers that are either not informative or have not completely sorted. Hybridization can also blur species boundaries by leading to incongruence between morphology and genetics. We used traditional DNA barcoding and restriction-site associated DNA sequencing combined with coalescence-based and allele-frequency methods to elucidate species boundaries and simultaneously examine the potential role of hybridization in a speciose genus of octocoral, Sinularia.
resultsSpecies delimitations using two widely used DNA barcode markers, mtMutS and 28S rDNA, were incongruent with one another and with the morphospecies identifications. When mtMutS and 28S were concatenated, a 0.3% genetic distance threshold delimited the majority of morphospecies. In contrast, 12 of the 15 examined morphospecies formed well-supported monophyletic clades in both concatenated RAxML phylogenies and SNAPP species trees of > 6000 RADSeq loci. DAPC and Structure analyses also supported morphospecies assignments, but indicated the potential for two additional cryptic species. Three morphologically distinct species pairs could not, however, be distinguished genetically. ABBA-BABA tests demonstrated significant admixture between some of those species, suggesting that hybridization may confound species delimitation in Sinularia.
conclusionsA genomic approach can help to guide species delimitation while simultaneously elucidating the processes generating coral diversity. Results support the hypothesis that hybridization is an important mechanism in the evolution of Anthozoa, including octocorals, and future research should examine the contribution of this mechanism in generating diversity across the coral tree of life.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.