SEMINAR: MBF602 Xaymara Serrano Friday 3-25-11, 1pm S/A 103

["Xaymara M. Serrano" <xserrano@rsmas.miami.edu>]

Use of 454 sequencing for the development of microsatellite loci to assess
vertical genetic connectivity in Caribbean reef corals

The ?deep reef refugia? hypothesis suggests that deep reefs can act as
local recruitment sources for shallow reefs following disturbance.
Supporting this hypothesis, preliminary analyses from the broadcast
spawning species Montastraea cavernosa revealed greater vertical genetic
connectivity in Bermuda compared to Florida, perhaps due to deep reefs
being closer to shallow reefs. However, further tests of this hypothesis
in this and other Caribbean species has been difficult due to the scarcity
of genetic makers capable of detecting fine-scale genetic differentiation.
To help alleviate this limitation, we used ?next generation? 454 DNA
sequencing to develop numerous new microsatellite loci for 6 coral species
for which there are few or no population genetic markers available (M.
cavernosa, Porites astreoides, Agaricia agaricites, Siderastrea siderea,
Stephanocoenia intercepta and Diploria strigosa). A single 454 sequencing
run (one half plate) produced ~430,000 sequence reads. These sequences
were filtered, assembled and searched for the presence of microsatellite
repeats. Candidate sequences with a minimum of six trinucleotide repeats
were identified, and primers were designed for the 4 species (M.
cavernosa, P. astreoides, S. siderea and A. agaricites) with a sufficient
number of candidate loci. By PCR-optimizing a subset of these candidates
we expect to greatly increase the number of host-specific, polymorphic
neutral markers for these ecologically important Caribbean coral species.
These loci will be used to increase the resolution of the analyses we have
undertaken to date to infer population structure and patterns of
connectivity among deep and shallow reefs in the tropical western Atlantic
(including sites in Florida, Bermuda, the US Virgin Islands and the Cayman
Islands).


Xaymara M. Serrano
B.S. in Biology (2004), Universidad de Puerto Rico
M.S. in Marine Biology and Fisheries (2008), RSMAS
Continued to PhD program in Fall 2008

Advisor: Dr. Andrew Baker




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