Discussion on species validity of crown-of-thorns starfish in the South China Sea
Outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish(CoTS)have seriously threatened the health of coral reef ecosystem and even the biodiversity of the whole South China Sea.For the present confusion in use of Latin names and incon-sistent Chinese names of CoTS,we collected CoTS samples from the Jimeng Ansha shoal of the Zhongsha Islands,and explored the species validity of CoTS by combining the results of the previous studies on the species classifica-tion and distribution.Results show that all the CoTS sequences could be divided into four groups and the genetic distance among various group ranged from 0.087 5 to 0.104 7,reaching the level of interspecific difference.While the CoTS from the South China Sea clustered together with the species from the Pacific CoTS and it was found that it is an actually Acanthaster solaris,and there was obvious interspecific genetic differentiation from the other three species.The genetic distance between two clades of A.solaris is 0.005 3,which is confirmed as intraspecific differ-entiation at the CO Ⅰ gene level.Results of the study on the species validity of CoTS from the South China Sea pro-vide a scientific basis for the subsequent studies on its genetic characteristics and adaptive mechanism,population distribution and diffusion mechanisms,and population outbreak mechanism.
marine biologycrown-of-thorns starfishspecies validitycoral reefDNA barcodingsynonymSouth China Sea
万方数据
维普
