Comparative phylogeography of two gorgonian corals (Gorgoniidae: Leptogorgia) around Canary Islands

Leptogorgia viminalis (Pallas, 1766) and Leptogorgia ruberrima (W. Koch, 1886), as gorgonians, are ecosystem engineers and so they play an important ecological role in the environment where they live. Nevertheless, information concerning their ecology, their pattern of connectivity and their phylogenetic relationships are still not known. Here, I evaluate the molecular phylogenetic relationships between them and among other species of the genus and set the groundwork to the study of the genetic variability and structure among the populations of the two species sampled on the Canary Islands. The analyses have been conducted on the DNA sequences obtained from coral fragments using four molecular markers: ITS2, 28S, COI and MutS. The two species appear genetically close related, nevertheless three of the four markers (28S, COI and MutS) highlighted that L. viminalis is more related to L. samentosa, while L. ruberrima proved to be genetically very close to L. sylvanae. Due to the low number of analyzed individuals for both species, and the low resolution of the molecular marker used, I did not detect any significant genetic structure among populations from the two Canarian Island investigated. In the future the use of a genomic approach based on ddRAD will help to disentangle some differences and can evidenced if the two species present the same level of connectivity. My preliminary data is a step forward to increase the knowledge of these valuable gorgonians.