Abstract
The sponge Callyspongia diffusa showed a rate of graft acceptance ranging from 5 to 23% between colony pairs tested at random from a highly localized population occurring on a small fringing reef flat in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii. The frequency of graft compatibility varied inversely with distance between the colonies over a range of from 0.1 to 11.9 m. Pairs of colonies in close proximity (5 to 50 m), but from opposite sides of deep channels, were invariably incompatible. Likewise, graft acceptance was not observed for colony pairs taken from different reefs of the bay and separated by a distance of from 2 to 3 km. C. diffusa propagates sexually by production of larvae and asexually by means of branch fragments. Graft rejection implies genetic non-identity, whereas acceptance implies identity. The observed spatial pattern of immunogenetic similarity suggestes that rate of graft acceptance is directly proportional to the extent of successful asexual reproduction within a given population. Conversely, rate of graft rejection appears to reflect the importance of sexual means of reproduction, which produces new combinations of histoincompatibility genes. Extensive genetic polymorphism at the locus or loci controlling graft acceptance and rejection is apparent in this species. Our findings are consistent with the “uniqueness of the individual” concept; postulation of “limited strain diversity” or “one shared allele yields tissue compatibility” is untenable in this species.
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Communicated by N. D. Holland, La Jolla
Contribution No. 631 of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology
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Jokiel, P.L., Hildemann, W.H. & Bigger, C.H. Frequency of intercolony graft acceptance or rejection as a measure of population structure in the sponge Callyspongia diffusa . Mar. Biol. 71, 135–139 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00394621
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00394621