Click
here to close Hello! We notice that
you are using Internet Explorer, which is not supported by Echinobase
and may cause the site to display incorrectly. We suggest using a
current version of Chrome,
FireFox,
or Safari.
PLoS One
2012 Jan 01;72:e31159. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031159.
Show Gene links
Show Anatomy links
There''s no place like home: crown-of-thorns outbreaks in the central pacific are regionally derived and independent events.
Timmers MA
,
Bird CE
,
Skillings DJ
,
Smouse PE
,
Toonen RJ
.
???displayArticle.abstract???
One of the most significant biological disturbances on a tropical coral reef is a population outbreak of the fecund, corallivorous crown-of-thorns sea star, Acanthaster planci. Although the factors that trigger an initial outbreak may vary, successive outbreaks within and across regions are assumed to spread via the planktonic larvae released from a primary outbreak. This secondary outbreak hypothesis is predominantly based on the high dispersal potential of A. planci and the assertion that outbreak populations (a rogue subset of the larger population) are genetically more similar to each other than they are to low-density non-outbreak populations. Here we use molecular techniques to evaluate the spatial scale at which A. planci outbreaks can propagate via larval dispersal in the central Pacific Ocean by inferring the location and severity of gene flow restrictions from the analysis of mtDNA control region sequence (656 specimens, 17 non-outbreak and six outbreak locations, six archipelagos, and three regions). Substantial regional, archipelagic, and subarchipelagic-scale genetic structuring of A. planci populations indicate that larvae rarely realize their dispersal potential and outbreaks in the central Pacific do not spread across the expanses of open ocean. On a finer scale, genetic partitioning was detected within two of three islands with multiple sampling sites. The finest spatial structure was detected at Pearl & Hermes Atoll, between the lagoon and forereef habitats (<10 km). Despite using a genetic marker capable of revealing subtle partitioning, we found no evidence that outbreaks were a rogue genetic subset of a greater population. Overall, outbreaks that occur at similar times across population partitions are genetically independent and likely due to nutrient inputs and similar climatic and ecological conditions that conspire to fuel plankton blooms.
???displayArticle.pubmedLink???
22363570
???displayArticle.pmcLink???PMC3281911 ???displayArticle.link???PLoS One
Figure 1. Sample locations of Acanthaster planci populations in the Pacific Ocean used in this study.Locations are color coded by region and shaded by subregion or archipelago. Shades of blue represent the northwestern Pacific (NW), shades of green represent the south central Pacific (SC), and red, orange, and yellow represent the north central Pacific (NC). The influential current paths in the central Pacific are represented: North Equatorial Countercurrent (NECC), North Equatorial Current (NEC), South Equatorial Countercurrent (SECC), and South Equatorial Current (SEC). GBR represents the Great Barrier Reef. Assigned location numbers that correspond to each region are represented in parentheses next to each site name and outbreak population locations are starred.
Figure 3. Relationships between genetic and geographical distance for Acanthaster planci.Patterns of isolation-by-distance: (A) across northwestern Pacific (NW) and south central Pacific (SC), (B) within NW, (C) within SC and (D) the main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) within the north central Pacific (NC).
Figure 6. Genetic diversity measurements based on effective haplotypes between outbreak and non-outbreak populations of Acanthaster planci within three regions.
Barshis,
Protein expression and genetic structure of the coral Porites lobata in an environmentally extreme Samoan back reef: does host genotype limit phenotypic plasticity?
2010, Pubmed
Barshis,
Protein expression and genetic structure of the coral Porites lobata in an environmentally extreme Samoan back reef: does host genotype limit phenotypic plasticity?
2010,
Pubmed
Beerli,
Comparison of Bayesian and maximum-likelihood inference of population genetic parameters.
2006,
Pubmed
Bird,
Contrasting phylogeography in three endemic Hawaiian limpets (Cellana spp.) with similar life histories.
2007,
Pubmed
Bird,
Diversification of sympatric broadcast-spawning limpets (Cellana spp.) within the Hawaiian archipelago.
2011,
Pubmed
Brodie,
Are increased nutrient inputs responsible for more outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish? An appraisal of the evidence.
2005,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Christie,
Larval connectivity in an effective network of marine protected areas.
2010,
Pubmed
Colgan,
Coral Reef Recovery on Guam (Micronesia) After Catastrophic Predation by Acanthaster Planci.
1987,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Eble,
Escaping paradise: Larval export from Hawaii in an Indo-Pacific reef fish, the Yellow Tang (Zebrasoma flavescens).
2011,
Pubmed
Edgar,
MUSCLE: multiple sequence alignment with high accuracy and high throughput.
2004,
Pubmed
Excoffier,
Arlequin (version 3.0): an integrated software package for population genetics data analysis.
2007,
Pubmed
Excoffier,
Analysis of molecular variance inferred from metric distances among DNA haplotypes: application to human mitochondrial DNA restriction data.
1992,
Pubmed
Gouy,
SeaView version 4: A multiplatform graphical user interface for sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree building.
2010,
Pubmed
Hare,
MOLECULAR GENETIC ANALYSIS OF A STEPPED MULTILOCUS CLINE IN THE AMERICAN OYSTER (CRASSOSTREA VIRGINICA).
1996,
Pubmed
Hart,
It's about time: divergence, demography, and the evolution of developmental modes in marine invertebrates.
2010,
Pubmed
Johnson,
Temperature and the Larval Ecology of the Crown-of-Thorns Starfish, Acanthaster planci.
1994,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Jost,
Partitioning diversity into independent alpha and beta components.
2007,
Pubmed
Karl,
Balancing selection at allozyme loci in oysters: implications from nuclear RFLPs.
1992,
Pubmed
Marko,
The complex analytical landscape of gene flow inference.
2011,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Meeker,
Method for isolation of PCR-ready genomic DNA from zebrafish tissues.
2007,
Pubmed
Posada,
MODELTEST: testing the model of DNA substitution.
1998,
Pubmed
Pratchett,
Selective coral mortality associated with outbreaks of Acanthaster planci L. in Bootless Bay, Papua New Guinea.
2009,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Stat,
Variation in Symbiodinium ITS2 sequence assemblages among coral colonies.
2011,
Pubmed
Sweatman,
No-take reserves protect coral reefs from predatory starfish.
2008,
Pubmed
Toonen,
Defining Boundaries for Ecosystem-Based Management: A Multispecies Case Study of Marine Connectivity across the Hawaiian Archipelago.
2011,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Vogler,
A threat to coral reefs multiplied? Four species of crown-of-thorns starfish.
2008,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Wright,
Isolation by Distance.
1943,
Pubmed
Yasuda,
Gene flow of Acanthaster planci (L.) in relation to ocean currents revealed by microsatellite analysis.
2009,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
Yasuda,
Complete mitochondrial genome sequences for Crown-of-thorns starfish Acanthaster planci and Acanthaster brevispinus.
2006,
Pubmed
,
Echinobase
