First record of two hard coral species (Faviidae and Siderastreidae) from Qeshm Island (Persian Gulf, Iran)

Abstrak. Moradi M, Kamrani E, Shokri MR, Ranjbar MS, Hesni MA (2009) Rekaman pertama dua spesies karang keras (Faviidae dan Siderastreidae) dari Pulau Qeshm (Teluk Persia, Iran). Nusantara Bioscience 2: 34-37. Dua jenis karang keras termasuk Cyphastrea chalcidicum (Forskal 1775) (Faviidae) dan Coscinaraea monile (Forskal 1775) (Siderastreidae) dikumpulkan dari selatan Pulau Qeshm (Teluk Persia, Iran) pada akhir tahun 2008. Spesies ini sebelumnya dilaporkan terdapat di Teluk Persia selatan, Teluk Aden, Afrika Tenggara dan Indo-Pasifik. Tinjauan literatur pada distribusi kedua jenis mengungkapkan bahwa spesies ini pertama kali tercatat dari Teluk Persia. Temuan ini semakin menunjukkan tingginya keragaman fauna karang di perairan Iran di bagian utara Teluk Persia. Kata kunci: catatan pertama, Coscinaraea monile, Cyphastrea chalcidicum, Qeshm island, Persian gulf

Rising the persian gulf black-lip pearl oyster to the species level: fragmented habitat and chaotic genetic patchiness in Pinctada persica

Marine organisms with long pelagic larval stages are expected to exhibit low genetic differentiation due to their potential to disperse over large distances. Growing body of evidence, however, suggests that marine populations can differentiate over small spatial scales. Here we focused on black-lip pearl oysters from the Persian Gulf that are thought to belong to the Pinctada margaritifera complex given their morphological affinities. This species complex includes seven lineages that show a wide distribution ranging from the Persian Gulf (Pinctada margaritifera persica) and Indian Ocean (P. m. zanzibarensis) to the French Polynesia (P. m. cumingii) and Hawai'i (P. m. galtsoffi). Despite the long pelagic larval phase of P. m. persica, this lineage is absent from continental locations and can only be found on a few islands of the Persian Gulf. Mitochondrial COI-based analyses indicated that P. m. persica belongs to a clearly divergent ESU and groups with specimens from Mauritius (P. m. zanzibarensis). Microsatellite data, used here to assess the spatial scale of realized dispersal of Persian Gulf black-lip pearl oysters, revealed significant genetic structure among islands distant of only a few dozen kilometres. The scantiness of suitable habitats most likely restricted the distribution of this lineage originating the observed chaotic genetic patchiness. The hatchery-based enhancement performed in one of the sampled islands may also have affected population genetic structure. The long-term accumulation of genetic differences likely resulted from the allopatric divergence between P. m. persica and the neighbouring Indian Ocean black-lip pearl oysters

Guanidinium (aqua-2κO)(4-hydr­oxy-6-carboxy­pyridine-2-carboxyl­ato-2κ3 O 2,N,O 6)(μ-4-hydroxy­pyridine-2,6-dicarboxyl­ato-1:2κ4 O 2,N,O 6:O 2)(4-hydroxy­pyridine-2,6-dicarboxyl­ato-1κ3 O 2,N,O 6)dizincate(II) dihydrate

The title compound, (CH6N3)[Zn2(C7H3NO5)2(C7H4NO5)(H2O)]·2H2O, has an anionic binuclear complex of ZnII balanced with a guanidinium cation. There are two uncoord­inated water mol­ecules in the structure. The asymmetric unit of the compound has two different coordination types (the coordination of Zn1 is distorted trigonal-bipyramidal, while that of Zn2 is distorted octahedral) of ZnII in the crystal structure that are bridged to each other via one hypydc2− group (hypydcH2 is 4-hydroxy­pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid). A variety of inter­molecular O—H⋯O, N—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds involving water mol­ecules, cations and anions, and also a weak π–π inter­action [3.798 (1) Å], are responsible for extending the structure into a three-dimensional network

Genetic Variation in Response to Global Warming in a Coral Reef Species, Porites lobata

Climate change due to global warming is one of the worst environmental disasters in the world, which affects all ecosystems and has led to increasing degradation of coral reefs. The increase of sea surface temperature is inversely related to the resistance of corals and is directly associated with their bleaching. High temperature disrupts the symbiotic relationship between coral and algal symbiont and results in coral bleaching. To evaluate the adaptation of corals to heat stress, in this study, we investigated the thermal stress effect on the expression of genes involved in programmed cell death (PCD), cysteinyl aspartate proteases 3 (will be mentioned as Caspas3 hereafter) and anti-apoptotic pathway, B-cell lymphoma 2 (will be mentioned as Bcl2 hereafter) in Porites lobata (Dana, 1846). Corals were incubated at 25°C for 2 weeks (adaptation period) and then exposed to 34°C (heat shock) for 24 and 48 hours. Then, the expression of genes was measured using real-time PCR. The results revealed that both genes were up-regulated at 24 hours after heat induction. Bcl-2 expression (anti-apoptotic gene) was induced at 24 hours and was down-regulated at 48 hours. In contrast, Caspase3 (apoptotic gene) continued to be expressed up to 48 hours. These results might indicate that coral cells are headed towards bleaching and death with increased temperature. The results of this study, regarding the observed expression patterns, can clarify the response of different genes to a thermal stress in coral reefs. The exposure of corals to acute conditions with high temperatures presented the behavior of the desired genes in the studied conditions

Phylogenetic Position of the Barnacle Chelonibia testudinaria Linnaeus, 1758 from the Persian Gulf

Chelonibia testudinaria is a globally widespread epibiont barnacle. Previous phylogenetic studies have shown that specimens of this species positioned in three separate clades. One clade contains specimens of the Eastern Pacific, one clade contains specimens of the West and East Atlantic, and one clade contains specimens of the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia. In the present study, we addressed the phylogenetic position of specimens of C. testudinaria from the Persian Gulf using the mitochondrial COX1gene. The results show that specimens of the Persian Gulf cluster with specimens of Southeast Asia from Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore as well as Japan in a supported clade. The widespread distribution of this species in the Indo-West Pacific seems to have been facilitated by sea turtles. Key words: Bandar Abbas, Molecular Phylogeny, COX1, Chelonibia testudinaria, Portunus segnis.   Introduction Indo-West Pacific region is known for its high marine biodiversity (Roberts et al., 2002; Wafar et al., 2011). Land masses like the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra Island separated this oceanic region into two areas, east and west. Phylogenetic studies of species complexes (e.g., Ragionieri et al., 2009; Lai et al., 2010; Bowen et al., 2016) have confirmed genetic isolation between the two sides of these land barriers in the Indo-West Pacific.   Chelonibia testudinaria Linnaeus, 1758 is a globally widespread epibiont barnacle, attached to the carapace of crabs and sea turtles (Rawson et al., 2003). Previous phylogenetic studies have shown that specimens of this species positioned in three separate clades. One clade contains specimens of the Eastern Pacific, one clade contains specimens of the West and East Atlantic, and one clade contains specimens of the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia (Cheang et al., 2013). This species is also a common barnacle in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman (Shahdadi et al., 2014). In this regard, the present study aims to address the phylogenetic position of C. testudinaria from the Persian Gulf using a mitochondrial marker.   Materials and Methods Specimens of the Swimming crab, Portunus segnis were collected by a local fisherman from the coastal area of Bandar Abbas, Persian Gulf, Iran. The specimens of C. testudinaria were removed from the carapace of two crabs and preserved in 96% ethanol. Genomic DNA was isolated using the Puregene method. A fragment of the mitochondrial protein-coding gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COX1) was amplified by polymerase chain reactions (PCRs). To amplify a segment of 670 bp of the COX1 gene, corresponding to the generally used barcoding region, the Folmer primers LCO1490 and HCO2198 (Folmer, 1994) were used. In addition to the sequences of the Persian Gulf material, we recovered homologous sequences of this species from GenBank (NCBI) and used them for phylogenetic analyses. Chelonibia Caretta was used as an outgroup for this analysis. For phylogenetic tree reconstruction, we applied a Maximum Likelihood (ML) algorithm using the software raxmlGUI (Silvestro & Michalak, 2012).   Results and Conclusion In total, 58 sequences of C. testudinaria were collected to be used in the present phylogenetic analysis. Nine sequences were obtained from the Persian Gulf and the rest were recovered from GenBank from different areas. Corresponding to previous studies (Rawson et al., 2009; Cheang et al., 2013), the present ML tree recovered three distinct clades for C. testudinaria from around the world. These include the Eastern Pacific clade, the Atlantic clade including western specimens along with Mediterranean sequences, and the West Pacific clade including sequences from Southeast Asia. The results of the study show that the specimens of the Persian Gulf cluster with specimens of Southeast Asia from Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore as well as Japan in a supported clade. The widespread distribution of this species in the Indo-West Pacific seems to have been facilitated by sea turtles

Expression pattern of genes involved in biomineralization in black and orange mantle tissues of pearl oyster, Pinctada persica

A few species of mollusks display color variation in their soft tissues. In pearl oysters, the color polymorphism in mantle tissue is associated with the color and radiance of shell and pearl. The study of biomineralization related genes in mantle tissue of pearl oysters can be used as a suitable approach to better identify the molecular mechanisms that influence shell and pearl quality and color variations. In this study, we investigated the expression of biomineralization-related genes in black and orange mantle morphotypes of pearl oyster, Pinctada persica in both warm and cool seasons using quantitative real-time PCR. Our results showed that the genes involved in biomineralization of the prismatic and nacre layer, i.e.; ASP, KRMP, MRNP34, SHELL, SHEM1B, LINKINE, PIF, SHEM5, NACREIN, and in pigmentation (TYR2A) were significantly higher expressed in orange phenotype compared to those of black one. The higher expression of ASP, KRMP, SHEM5, LINKINE and NACREIN in orange phenotype was only observed in warm season, but PIF, SHELL, SHEM1B, and TYR2A were upregulated in both warm and cool seasons. These results suggest the existence of different genetic processes between the two color morphs of P. persica and the more active role of genes in orange morphotype, particularly in warmer season. This study provides better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying biomineralization in pearl oysters