Abstract
The scientific understanding on phylogeny, ecology and evolution of scleractinian corals has been expanded thanks to the numerous applications of molecular markers. Nevertheless, shallow-water tropical corals were the main subject of these studies so far. Just recently scientists have focused their attention on deep and cold-water corals. In the last decade, the solitary coral Desmophyllum dianthus (Esper, 1794) has been the subject of several studies focused on phylogeny, ecology, and physiology. This drop chapter seeks to summarise the novel obtained results, and consequently the arguments arise, in molecular ecology, systematics and evolution of the species. Key roles of this species in the evolutionary studies of scleractinian corals are also discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Addamo AM, Reimer JD, Taviani M, et al (2012) Desmophyllum dianthus (Esper, 1794) in the scleractinian phylogeny and its intraspecific diversity. PLoS One 7:e50215. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0050215
Addamo AM, García Jiménez R, Taviani M, et al (2015a) Development of microsatellite markers in the deep-sea cup coral Desmophyllum dianthus and cross-species amplifications in the Scleractinia Order. J Hered 106:322–330. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esv010
Addamo AM, Martínez-Baraldés I, Vertino A, et al (2015b) Morphological polymorphism of Desmophyllum dianthus over a wide ecological and biogeographic range: stability in deep habitats? Zool Anz 259:113–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcz.2015.10.004
Addamo AM, Vertino A, Stolarski J, et al (2016) Merging scleractinian coral genera: the overwhelming genetic similarity between solitary Desmophyllum and colonial Lophelia. BMC Evol Biol 16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-016-0654-8
Addamo AM, Miller K, Haüssermann V et al Global-scale genetic structure of cosmopolitan cold-water coral species (under review)
Fukami H, Chen CA, Budd AF, et al (2008) Mitochondrial and nuclear genes suggest that stony corals are monophyletic but most families of stony corals are not (Order Scleractinia, Class Anthozoa, Phylum Cnidaria). PLoS One 3:e3222. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003222
Gori A, Ferrier-Pagès C, Henninge SJ, et al (2016) Physiological response of the cold-water coral Desmophyllum dianthus to thermal stress and ocean acidification. PeerJ 4:e1606. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1606
Huang D, Benzoni F, Fukami F, et al (2014) Taxonomic classification of the reef coral families Merulinidae, Montastraeidae, and Diploastraeidae (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Scleractinia). Zool J Linn Soc-Lond 171:277–355. https://doi.org/10.1111/zoj.12140
Montagna P, McCulloch M, Mazzoli C, et al (2008) High-resolution geochemical records from Mediterranean cold-water corals: proxies for paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental reconstructions and the role of coral physiology. CIESM Work Monogr 36:55–60
Roberts JM, Wheeler AJ, Freiwald A, et al (2009) Cold-water corals: the biology and geology of deep-sea coral habitats. Cambridge University Press, New York, p 334. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511581588
Romano SL, Palumbi RS (1996) Evolution of Scleractinian corals inferred from molecular systematics. Science 271:640–642. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.271.5249.640
Stewart JA, Anagnostou E, Foster GL, et al (2016) An improved boron isotope pH proxy calibration for the deep-sea coral Desmophyllum dianthus through sub-sampling of fibrous aragonite. Chem Geol 447:148–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2016.10.029
Stolarski J, Kitahara MV, Miller DJ, et al (2011) The ancient evolutionary origins of Scleractinia revealed by azooxanthellate corals. BMC Evol Biol 11:316. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-11-316
Cross References
Altuna A, Poliseno A (this volume) Taxonomy, genetics and biodiversity of Mediterranean deep-sea corals and cold-water corals
Boavida J, Becheler R, Addamo AM, et al (this volume) Past, present and future connectivity of Mediterranean cold-water corals: patterns, drivers and fate in a technically and environmentally changing world
Montagna P, Taviani M (this volume) Mediterranean cold-water corals as paleoclimate archives
Reynaud S, Ferrier-Pagès C (this volume) Biology and ecophysiology of Mediterranean cold-water corals
Acknowledgments
I thank the reviewers Sophie Arnaud-Haond and Federica Costantini and the editor Covadonga Orejas for their valuable and insightful comments that improved the manuscript. I want to express my deep gratitude to Agostina Vertino, Jaroslaw Stolarski, Annie Machodorm and her group members at the Department of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology of MNCN, for their great support and the inspiring discussions. This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CGL2011-23306 and CTM2014-57949R) and EU CoCoNET—“Towards COast to COast NETworks of marine protected areas (from the shore to the high and deep-sea), coupled with sea-based wind energy potential”—from the VII FP of the European Commission under grant agreement n° 287844.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Addamo, A.M. (2019). 32 Desmophyllum dianthus Genetics and More. In: Orejas, C., Jiménez, C. (eds) Mediterranean Cold-Water Corals: Past, Present and Future. Coral Reefs of the World, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91608-8_32
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91608-8_32
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-91607-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-91608-8
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)