{
  "abstract": "Pocillopora is a widespread, dominant reef‐building coral genus in the Indo‐Pacific; many species within this group exhibit high morphological similarity and plasticity. Given this, genetic tools are needed to robustly identify Pocillopora individuals to the species level. Quick and accurate identification approaches for Pocillopora species are critical to estimating biodiversity patterns under current and future environmental challenges. In recent years, the mitochondrial open reading frame (mtORF) and a histone region (PocHistone) have been validated using genome‐wide data to become the most widely used species‐level markers for Pocillopora . However, Sanger sequencing of a large number of samples can be prohibitively expensive and sequencing facilities are not always readily available. Therefore, we present restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) digests here that identify the six species of Pocillopora ( P. acuta , P. cf. effusa , P. grandis , P. meandrina , P. tuahiniensis , and P. verrucosa ) found in French Polynesia, without sequencing. In uninformed validation tests (in silico and in vitro), our protocol identified each Pocillopora species with 100% accuracy. Given their cost‐effective, rapid nature, the tailoring of additional RFLP digest protocols to identify cryptic coral species in reef regions around the world will support foundational reef science, conservation and restoration initiatives.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management University of California Berkeley California USA",
    "Department of Developmental Biology Stanford University Stanford California USA",
    "Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology University of Hawaii at Manoa Kaneohe Hawaii USA",
    "Department of Biological Science Florida State University Tallahassee Florida USA",
    "Department of Biology Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim Norway",
    "Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences University of Haifa Haifa Israel",
    "Department of Biological Sciences College of the Environment and Life Sciences, University of Rhode Island Kingston Rhode Island USA"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 8,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Francesca M. Cohn",
      "orcid": "0009-0007-2843-6614"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Erika C. Johnston",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0520-9324"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Scott C. Burgess",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0348-3453"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Jordan A. Sims",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3107-0808"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Krithika Layagala",
      "orcid": "0009-0005-1991-3672"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "Pierrick Harnay",
      "orcid": "0009-0009-5495-1868"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        6
      ],
      "name": "Hollie M. Putnam",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2322-3269"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Adrienne M. S. Correa",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0137-5042"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6q8nc23zf82ka.bib",
  "cited_by": 1,
  "doi": "10.1002/ece3.74409",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "6q8nc23zf82ka",
  "issns": [
    "2045-7758",
    "2045-7758"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.74409",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2303|Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7215693780",
  "pdf_url": "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.74409",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-02",
  "publisher": "Wiley",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6q8nc23zf82ka.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:10Z",
      "native_id": "10.1002/ece3.74409",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.74409"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:2303|Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies",
      "subfield": "ecology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A Genetic Method for Distinguishing Cryptic Pocillopora Species in French Polynesia Without Sequencing",
  "title_text": "A Genetic Method for Distinguishing Cryptic Pocillopora Species in French Polynesia Without Sequencing",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:10Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6q8nc23zf82ka",
  "venue": "Ecology and Evolution",
  "versions": [
    {
      "doi": "10.22541/authorea.15003598/v1",
      "pid": null,
      "relation": "preprint",
      "title": null,
      "venue": null
    }
  ]
}