Adaptation to reef habitats through selection on the coral animal and its associated microbiome

Abstract

Spatially adjacent habitats on coral reefs can represent highly distinct environments, often harbouring different coral communities. Yet, certain coral species thrive across divergent environments. It is unknown whether the forces of selection are sufficiently strong to overcome the counteracting effects of the typically high gene flow over short distances, and for local adaptation to occur. We screened the coral genome (using restriction site‐associated sequencing) and characterized both the dinoflagellate photosymbiont‐ and tissue‐associated prokaryote microbiomes (using metabarcoding) of a reef flat and slope population of the reef‐building coral, Pocillopora damicornis , at two locations on Heron Island in the southern Great Barrier Reef. Reef flat and slope populations were separated by

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