Soft Coral Sarcophyton (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Octocorallia) Species Diversity and Chemotypes

Research on the soft coral genus Sarcophyton extends over a wide range of fields, including marine natural products and the isolation of a number of cembranoid diterpenes. However, it is still unknown how soft corals produce this diverse array of metabolites, and the relationship between soft coral diversity and cembranoid diterpene production is not clear. In order to understand this relationship, we examined Sarcophyton specimens from Okinawa, Japan, by utilizing three methods: morphological examination of sclerites, chemotype identification, and phylogenetic examination of both Sarcophyton (utilizing mitochondrial protein-coding genes MutS homolog: msh1) and their endosymbiotic Symbiodinium spp. (utilizing nuclear internal transcribed spacer of ribosomal DNA: ITS- rDNA). Chemotypes, molecular phylogenetic clades, and sclerites of Sarcophyton trocheliophorum specimens formed a clear and distinct group, but the relationships between chemotypes, molecular phylogenetic clade types and sclerites of the most common species, Sarcophyton glaucum, was not clear. S. glaucum was divided into four clades. A characteristic chemotype was observed within one phylogenetic clade of S. glaucum. Identities of symbiotic algae Symbiodinium spp. had no apparent relation to chemotypes of Sarcophyton spp. This study demonstrates that the complex results observed for S. glaucum are due to the incomplete and complex taxonomy of this species group. Our novel method of identification should help contribute to classification and taxonomic reassessment of this diverse soft coral genus

On the validity of Alcyonium siderium Verrill (Coelenterata : Octocorallia)

INTRODUCTION Verrill (1879: 199-200) described two specimens of Alcyonium collected on the Fishing Bank, east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in 80 fathoms. According to him "they form low, thick, lobular masses", "the base is somewhat spreading" and "the division into rounded or flattened lobes takes place close to the base". He is of opinion that "if not identical with A. digitatum of Europe, it is at least very closely related". More than forty years later Verrill (1922: 20) returns to this question. This time he gives a drawing of one of these American colonies (his textfigure 3), and he has changed his mind regarding the relation to A. digitatum. He now thinks the species is "distinct from the common European species, A. digitatum, to which it is nearly allied". He named it A. siderium. It is a pity that Verrill omitted an exact study of the spicules and of other characters. Deichmann (1936: 48-49) described the species more fully on the basis of "twenty-five specimens from nine localities off the coast of New England at depths varying from 8-80 fms". But she also failed to give drawings of the spicules. She found that the differences between Verrill's A. siderium and Linné's A. digitatum were insignificant, and she therefore abandoned the name siderium. Recently Dr. Arthur G. Humes, Boston University, Massachusetts, sent to me three Alcyonium colonies collected by him in the same locality as Verrill's type specimens. A hasty survey of them led me to doubt the correctness of Deichmann's conclusion, and a closer examination and comparison of both species seemed necessary to me

A Revision Of The Genus Sarcophyton Lesson (Octocorallia, Alcyonacea)

The author refers 35 valid species to the genus Sarcophyton. The holotypes of nearly all species could be examined; of only three species (S. elegans, S. glaucum, and S. latum) their depository is unknown. The holotypes of eight species were described earlier by the present author, in four cases in co-operation with other authors; the reader is referred to the literature given in the list of valid species. Among the species described in the present paper there is a new one: S. buitendijki. A list of invalid taxa is added. Four keys may help with the identification of the corals

A redescription of the soft coral Alcyonium valdiviae Kukenthal, 1906, with the description of a new species of Litophyton Forskal, 1775, from southern Africa (Octocorallia, Alcyonacea)

Volume: 97Start Page: 315End Page: 32