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Typical morphology of sclerites from the colony surface and polyps of Sinularia, clades 1 to 4B. A. Clade 4B: Sinularia humilis RMNH Coel. 38737; a, point clubs. B. Clade 4A: a, Sinularia flexibilis, clubs from the base of the colony (uncatalogued colony from Raja Ampat, Indonesia); b, Sinularia querciformis RMNH Coel. 34308. C. Clade 3: a, Sinularia fungoides RMNH Coel. 34321; b, Dampia pocilloporaeformis RMNH Coel. 19843. D. Clade 2: Sinularia flaccida RMNH Coel. 38731; a, point clubs; b, collaret spindle; c, surface clubs. E. Clade 1: Sinularia brassica RMNH Coel. 34304; a, tentacle scales; b, surface clubs.
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The speciose tropical soft coral genus Sinularia traditionally has been divided into five intrageneric taxonomic groups based on variation in a single morphological character: the shape of the club sclerites (calcite skeletal elements) embedded in the surface tissues of the colony. To test the phylogenetic utility of this system of classification,...
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... 1898, and one as Sinularia dura (PRATT 1903). These two species, which differ only in colony growth form, have been synonymized previously ( Benayahu et al. 1998), although the two distinct haplotypes we found are suggestive of two species (Fig. 2). The shape of the club sclerites (very wide heads with no central wart) is unique within the genus (Fig. 3E, b), as is the enormous variation in colony growth form that these species exhibit (Bena- yahu et al. 1998). Clade 1 is further distinguished from the other four major clades by the presence of scales in the tentacles (Fig. 3E, a). Point and collaret sclerites are absent (Table ...
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... two species (Fig. 2). The shape of the club sclerites (very wide heads with no central wart) is unique within the genus (Fig. 3E, b), as is the enormous variation in colony growth form that these species exhibit (Bena- yahu et al. 1998). Clade 1 is further distinguished from the other four major clades by the presence of scales in the tentacles (Fig. 3E, a). Point and collaret sclerites are absent (Table ...
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... four species have in common a well-developed collaret and points (collaret spindles to 0.25-0.4 mm length [Fig. 3D, b]; point clubs to 0.17-0.28 mm length [Fig. 3D, a]) as well as rods in the tentacles (Table 1). On the colony surface, they all have club sclerites with a central wart (see Fig. 1) that is somewhat obscured by three lateral warts (Fig. 3D, c). Sinularia vrijmoethi, S. flaccida, and S. loyai are very similar in having long clubs (averaging 0.26, 0.29, and 0.30 mm, respectively); S. grandilobata, which forms a sister clade to the other three species, has much shorter clubs (0.10 mm). Sinularia grandilobata also has an encrusting colony growth form, while the other three ...
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... classified the two former species in his Group III: ''most clubs 0.06-0.12 mm long, not of the leptoclados-type, and without central wart.'' However, all three species clearly have clubs with a central wart, although it is mostly nestled within the three lateral warts below it, which tend to obscure it and give the club head a triangular shape (Fig. 3C). This unique club shape is diagnostic for clade 3. In addition, species in this clade have indistinct points formed by rod-like sclerites (see Alderslade 1983: fig. 4J-M; Alderslade 1987: fig. ...
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... querciformis and S. variabilis do have clubs with a central wart, but this central wart is often leaflike, obscuring the arrangement (Fig. 3B, b). Sinularia procera and S. flexibilis normally have no clubs on the surface layer of the lobes (Verseveldt 1977(Verseveldt , 1980. van Ofwegen & Vennam (1994), however, found a specimen of S. flexibilis from Ambon that had surface clubs, mostly with a central wart and not unlike those of S. querciformis and S. variabilis. All four ...
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... Sinul- aria curvata MANUPUTTY & OFWEGEN 2007, Sinularia ultima VAN OFWEGEN 2008b, Sinularia sobolifera VERSEVELDT & TURSCH 1979, Sinularia cruciata TIX- IER-DURIVAULT 1970, and Sinularia polydactyla (EHRENBERG 1834). Although support for monophyly was lacking for this group, all of these species have in common the presence of point sclerites (Fig. 3A, a), a character that distinguishes them from other members of clade ...
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... a distinct central wart (Fig. 4C, c DURIVAULT 1970S. verseveldti OFWEGEN 1996 Ã Different specimens of S. polydactyla and S. cruciata exhibit msh1 haplotypes characteristic of two different clades or sub-clades. the tentacles (Fig. 4C, d), the latter two species even sharing a particular type of tentacle scale (see Manu- putty & van Ofwegen 2007: fig. 13A). The tentacle scales of S. gardineri are less pronounced. Sinularia mauritiana has been described as lacking polyp sclerites (Vennam & Parulekar 1994), but we were unable to verify that character state for the specimen included here. Sub-clade 5B includes Sinularia lamellata VERSE-VELDT & TURSCH 1979, S. cruciata NTM-C13505, Sinularia ...
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... suggests that his classification of club sclerites as having a central wart or not was often incorrect. For instance, species in clade 3 were classified by Verseveldt as lacking a central wart and were therefore placed in his Group III, but careful examination of these clubs reveals the presence of a small central wart that is often obscured (Fig. 3C). In fact, the only Sinularia species whose clubs truly lack a central wart are those in clade 1 (S. brassica/dura) and those with leptoclados-type clubs ...
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A new genus and species of octocoral with a calcium-carbonate skeleton, Nanipora
kamurai
sp. n., is described from a shallow coral reef in Okinawa, Japan. Contrary to most octocorals, the skeleton is composed of crystalline aragonite as in blue coral Heliopora. The results of molecular phylogenetic analyses of sequences of mtMutS, COI, and ITS1-5.8...
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... However, the presence and abundance of different soft coral taxa may vary among areas. For example, species within the genus Sclerophytum Pratt, 1903 are among the most abundant soft corals in the shallow coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region (McFadden et al. 2009(McFadden et al. , 2022. Sclerophytum species are also known to exist at high densities on the coral reefs in southwestern Okinawa Island (Loya et al. 2001;Jamodiong and Reimer 2023;Lalas et al. 2024). ...
... The alignments were inspected manually, and primer regions were removed. Consensus sequences were aligned to a reference dataset for genus Sclerophytum, specifically those with high percentage matches when blasted (NCBI blastn), and Clavularia inflata in GenBank (McFadden et al. 2009). For Sclerophytum, we chose the top 10 species that have more than 98.48% similarity to our sequences. ...
... However, for soft corals, many of the morphological characters traditionally used for classification in these taxa have now been shown to be discordant with molecular phylogenetic evidence. Furthermore, the lack of accurate estimates of soft coral biodiversity makes it difficult or almost impossible to assess or manage their biodiversity effectively (McFadden et al. 2009, Etsebeth 2018. My project aimed to investigate the biodiversity and distribution of soft corals in Mozambique, to contribute to the development of appropriate management and conservation policies. ...
... The mechanisms driving this variation in sexuality remain unclear because of the limited available information for this genus. In fact, data are available for only 16 of the $150 recognized species of Sclerophytum (as Sinularia) worldwide (McFadden et al., 2009(McFadden et al., , 2022. Species of Sclerophytum (= Sinularia) are also known to spawn concurrently with scleractinians on the GBR (Aliño & Coll, 1989). ...
Sexual reproduction data are important to understand how organisms can replenish their populations and proliferate on coral reefs. Despite the importance of such data, the reproductive characteristics of most soft coral species are still unknown. Here, we examined the reproductive strategies of a species from the often-dominant genus Sclerophytum in a coral reef on subtropical Okinawa Island, Japan. DNA barcoding and histological examinations of the tissues were conducted to confirm colony conspecificity and identify reproductive characteristics, respectively, between March 2020 and March 2021. Results indicated that the studied species, identified as Sclerophytum cf. heterospiculatum, exhibits gonochorism with longer oogenesis and shorter spermatogenesis. Female colonies produced immature oocytes throughout the year, with mature oocytes observed from late July to early September, and thus, extended spawning is likely characteristic of this species. In male colonies, spermatogenesis took place over ~5 months, with spermaries present from April through August. Mature spermaries were noted beginning in July and the inferred peak of sperm release was between late August and early September, which suggests that spermatogenesis duration was ~5 months. The largest mean oocyte and spermary sizes (628.45 ± 61.36 and 240.04 ± 49.49 μm, respectively) were both recorded in August. Gamete spawning presumably occurred during the summer season, which suggests seasonality in reproduction as influenced by changes in seawater temperature. However, the proximate cue for exact dates of spawning could be the lunar period because the inferred release of spawning materials seemed to occur between full moon and last-quarter moon phases in both the months of August and September. The results of this study represent the first detailed report of reproductive characteristics of the genus Sclerophytum in Japan.
... Here, the interpretation that the lack of genetic variation between K. aurantiaca and K. lobata in mitochondrial mtMutS and nuclear 28S indicates a lack of species-level resolution in the selected markers is supported (Kessel et al. 2022). However, both K. aurantiaca and K. lobata meet the proposed threshold for accurate discrimination of species in Alcyonium identified by McFadden et al. (2014a) for mean genetic p-distances in mtMutS (0.5%) (Kessel et al. 2022), although mtMutS often lack the resolution needed to discriminate between congeneric species (e.g., Sánchez et al. 2003b;Wirshing et al. 2005;Cairns and Bayer 2005;Cairns and Baco 2007;McFadden et al. 2006McFadden et al. , 2009. Additionally, nominal species of Alcyonium have been shown to share identical haplotypes for both mtMutS (McFadden et al. 2011) and28S (McFadden et al. 2014a). ...
In New Zealand, Kotatea aurantiaca and Kotatea lobata are two common, endemic, co-occurring, and morphologically similar soft coral species that currently cannot be distinguished without microscopic examination of sclerites and of which little is known regarding any aspect of their ecology or biology. The aim of the present study is to ascertain if, and in what ways, their colony growth forms differ, and to test the taxonomic value of macroscopic morphological character measurements using statistical discrimination analyses. A binary logistic regression model is developed whereby macroscopic characters of colony morphology can be used to assign specimens to either species with ~ 90% accuracy. Species assignment accuracy is greatest when ratios formed from morphological measurements are used rather than direct measurements. Here, these ratios are used for the first time to account for the appearance-altering habit among soft corals of hydrostatically expanding and contracting their coelenteron with seawater. Relationships between colony morphology and depth are also examined, and it is suggested that phenotypic plasticity detected in K. lobata , causing it to resemble K. aurantiaca more closely at greater depths, may contribute to their morphological overlap. It is anticipated that this discrimination technique will facilitate future research on the ecology and biology of these species and will be replicated on other sets of morphologically similar soft corals for which species discrimination has been problematic.
... Additionally, the specimen collection and experimental protocol of this study were approved by the Ethical Review Department of Science and Technology of Hainan Province (China) (reference number ZDKJ2019011-03-02). A live specimen of S. acuta was collected in West Island (Sanya, Hainan Province, China; 18 14 0 5.93 00 N, 109 22 0 46.46 00 E), and its taxonomic status was confirmed based on the morphology of sclerites following McFadden et al. (2009). The specimen and its DNA were deposited at the Hainan Tropical Ocean University Museum of Zoology (specimen voucher number: 0008-Sp; DNA ID number: 0008-D; Chaojie Yang: duanduan1986@outlook.com). ...
The complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of the soft coral Sinularia acuta Manuputty and van Ofwegen, 2007 was sequenced and annotated using Illumina next-generation sequencing (NGS). The mitogenome of S. acuta was 18,730 bp in length and consisted of 14 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNA genes (rRNA), and only one transfer RNA gene (tRNA-Met). The base composition was 30.18% A, 16.46% C, 19.35% G, and 34.00% T, with a total A + T content of 64.19%. The phylogenetic analysis demonstrated a close evolutionary relationship among Sinularia acuta, Sinularia penghuensis, and Sinularia maxima.
... tibetiana. Shared haplotypes in ITS gene(s) sequences, however, were observed among species in other taxa, e.g., Sphaerium Scopoli, 1777 (Bivalvia: Veneroida) (Lee & Foighil, 2003), Sinularia May, 1898 (Anthozoa: Octocorallia) (McFadden et al., 2009), Dendrolimus Germar, 1812 (Insecta: Lepidoptera) (Dai et al., 2012), and Cordulegaster Leach, 1815 (Insecta: Odonata) (Froufe et al., 2013). Therefore, these findings demonstrate that, except in A. sinica, the ITS1 gene tends to be somewhat conserved among Asian taxa, and is not so informative to identify the taxonomic status of Asian Artemia. ...
... Therefore, we conservatively hypothesize that A. tibetiana may have resulted from a past ancestral hybridization of a maternal ancestor of A. tibetiana with A. sorgeloosi n. sp. or its ancestor. A similar process led to the speciation of the Indo-West Pacific softcoral genus Sinularia (McFadden et al., 2009). ...
Species of Artemia are regionally endemic branchiopod crustaceans composed of sexual species and parthenogenetic lineages, and represent an excellent model for studying adaptation and speciation to extreme and heterogeneous hypersaline environments. We tested hypotheses of whether populations from the Tibetan Plateau belong to A. tibetiana Abatzopoulos, Zhang & Sorgeloos,1998 and whether a population from Kazakhstan is a new species, using other Asian species of Artemia as outgroups. We conducted a multitrait phylogenetic study based on the complete mitogenome, mitochondrial (COI, 12S, 16S) and nuclear (microsatellites, ITS1) markers, and a suit of uni-and multivariate morphological traits. Our results led to the discovery of two new species, one from the Tibetan Plateau (Haiyan Lake) in China (Artemia sorgeloosi n. sp.) and a second from Kazakhstan (Artemia amati n. sp.). Our analysis demonstrate that A. tibetiana and A. amati n. sp. are monophyletic, whereas A. sorgeloosi n. sp., and A. tibetiana are polyphyletic. Evolutionary relationships based on mitochondrial and nSSR markers suggest that A. tibetiana may have arisen from a past hybridization event of a maternal ancestor of A. tibetiana with A. sorgeloosi n. sp. or its ancestor. We present the complete mitogenome of A. tibetiana, A. amati n. sp., and A. sorgeloosi n. sp. We also provide a novel taxonomic identification key based on morphology, emphasizing the phenotype as a necessary component of the species concept.
... Alternatively, reluctance might stem from a reputation that even when attempted, genetic resolution is often insufficient to delimit octocoral species or might be incongruent with other data (e.g. Sánchez et al., 2003;Cairns & Bayer, 2005;Wirshing et al., 2005;Cairns & Baco, 2007;McFadden et al., 2006McFadden et al., , 2009. ...
Octocorals are problematic in their systematics, and the extent of their biodiversity is poorly understood. Integrative taxonomy (the use of two or more lines of evidence for the delimitation and description of taxa) is seen as a promising way to produce more robust species hypotheses and achieve taxonomic progress in this group. However, many octocoral descriptions continue to rely on morphological evidence alone, and the prevalence of integrative methods is unclear. Here, a literature survey was conducted to gain an overview of historical description rates and to examine trends in the publication of integrative descriptions between the years 2000 and 2020. We find that recent description rates are among the highest in the history of octocoral taxonomy, and although increasing, integrative taxon descriptions remain in the minority overall. We also find that integrative taxonomy has been applied unevenly across octocoral groups and geographical regions. Description rates show no signs of slowing, and no ceiling of total species richness has yet come into view. Coupled with a continued overreliance on morphological variation, particularly at the species level, this suggests that we might be adding to the workload of taxa requiring future revision faster than such instances can be resolved.
... It has come to a stage where many researchers have isolated interesting compounds but could not reproduce them since identification problems are still not resolved. Generally, their identification is characterized by morphological features such as polyps arranged on the terminal branches only, colour and external form, by the arrangement of sclerites and their DNA barcoding (McFadden et al., 2009;Santhanam, 2020). However, soft corals identification using these methods is quite difficult and the classification is often re-described (McFadden et al., 2014;Imahara et al., 2017). ...
The structure types and bioactivities of secondary metabolites derived from Litophyton arboreum, distributed in Sepanggar Bay, Sabah, Malaysia, were investigated as additional tools for establishing their species identification. As a result, a total of two secondary metabolites (alismol (1) and 10α-methoxy-4β-hydroxy guaian-6-ene (2)) were isolated from Bornean soft coral L. arboreum. Their structures were elucidated based on spectroscopic data analysis and the antifungal activities of compounds 1 and 2 were determined. In addition, the compound 2 showed highest antifungal activity against Haliphthoros milfordensis. As a result of comparison with previous literature, significant variations were observed in relation to structure types of secondary metabolites and bioactivities. Information from this study gives additional evidence of chemotaxonomic significance and baseline data for effective selection of suitable lead pharmaceuticals.
... This refl ects results obtained throughout the Octocorallia generally. In this subclass, mitochondrial genes are considered to evolve at very slow rates when compared to other animals and are known to often lack the resolution needed to discriminate between congeneric species (e.g., Sánchez et al. 2003;Wirshing et al. 2005;Cairns & Bayer 2005;McFadden et al. 2006aMcFadden et al. , 2009Cairns & Baco 2007). The polytomous topologies within Kotatea and Ushanaia, respectively, are thus not unusual. ...
... was also supported by their interspecifi c mean p-distance for mtMutS (Table 3), which passed species discrimination thresholds recommended by McFadden et al. (2014). Beyond this, however, mean distances added no further support to species discrimination based on phylogenetic and morphological data, and for mtMutS generally fell within or below the ranges observed in other genera, such as Sinularia May, 1898(McFadden et al. 2009) and Narella Gray, 1870 (Cairns & Baco 2007). ...
The taxonomic status of Alcyonium aurantiacum Quoy & Gaimard, 1833, an octocoral endemic to New Zealand, was reviewed through morpho-molecular data comparisons in an integrative approach. Molecular phylogenetic analyses (nuclear 28S and mitochondrial mtMutS) resolved New Zealand taxa as more closely related to other genera and nominal Alcyonium Linnaeus, 1758 from South America than to the genus’ North Atlantic type species. Due to low genetic variation, species delimitation relied predominantly on identifying consistent differences in sclerite and colony morphology. The former A. aurantiacum is reassigned to Kotatea gen. nov. as K. aurantiaca gen. et comb. nov. and seven new species are described in this genus (K. amicispongia gen. et sp. nov., K. lobata gen. et sp. nov., K. kapotaiora gen. et sp. nov., K. kurakootingotingo gen. et sp. nov., K. niwa gen. et sp. nov., K. raekura gen. et sp. nov., and K. teorowai gen. et sp. nov.). Three new species in Ushanaia gen. nov. are also described (U. ferruginea gen. et sp. nov., U. fervens gen. et sp. nov. and U. solida gen. et sp. nov. ). These descriptions increase our understanding of New Zealand’s endemic octocoral diversity and contribute to ongoing systematic revisions of Alcyonium.
... The genus Sinularia with approximately 170-190 biological species is a large group in Octocorallia, commonly distributed in tropical zones of shallow water to deep reefs (van Ofwegen 2000;Fabricius and Alderslade 2001;McFadden et al. 2009). van Ofwegen has described species of Sinularia humilis from Palau (Micronesia) in 2008. ...
In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Sinularia humilis van Ofwegen, 2008 was determined using next-generation sequencing (NGS) method. The mitogenome of S. humilis is 18,743 bp in length, containing 14 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNAs (rRNA) and one tRNA (tRNA-Met), which has same gene order with other species of Sinularia. ATG was determined as start codon in all 14 PCGs. Eight TAG, five TAA, and one incomplete codons (T-) were found as stop codon. Phylogenetic analysis of the small number of available mitogenomes showed that S. humilis is closely related to Sinularia ceramensis and Sinularia peculiaris.
