PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Christian R Voolstra
AU  - Yong Li
AU  - Yi Jin Liew
AU  - Sebastian Baumgarten
AU  - Didier Zoccola
AU  - Jean-François Flot
AU  - Sylvie Tambutte
AU  - Denis Allemand
AU  - Manuel Aranda
TI  - Comparative analysis of the genomes of <em>Stylophora pistillata</em> and <em>Acropora digitifera</em> provides evidence for extensive differences between species of corals
AID  - 10.1101/197830
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 197830
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/10/03/197830.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/10/03/197830.full
AB  - Stony corals form the foundation of coral reef ecosystems. Their phylogeny is characterized by a deep evolutionary divergence that separates corals into a robust and complex clade dating back to at least 245 mya. However, the genomic consequences and clade-specific evolution remain unexplored. In this study we have produced the genome of a robust coral, Stylophora pistillata, and compared it to the available genome of a complex coral, Acropora digitifera. We conducted a fine-scale gene-based analysis focusing on ortholog groups. Among the core set of conserved proteins, we found an emphasis on processes related to the cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis. Similarly, genes associated with the algal symbiosis were also independently expanded in both species, but both corals diverged on the identity of ortholog groups expanded, and we found uneven expansions in genes associated with innate immunity and stress response. Our analyses demonstrate that coral genomes can be surprisingly disparate. Importantly, if the patterns elucidated here are representative of differences between corals from the robust and complex clade, the ability of a coral to respond to climate change may be dependent on its clade association.