NCCOS Assessment: Fertilization cross results examining genetic relatedness impact on successful reproduction in three species of reef building corals in the Florida Reef Tract in 2019 and 2022 (NCEI Accession 0289357)

Acropora cervicornis, A. palmata and Orbicella faveolata are important reef-building coral species in the Florida Reef Tract (FRT). These species have experienced alarming declines throughout the FRT, resulting in an increased risk of inbreeding depression and susceptibility to decreased fitness in surviving colonies. Acropora cervicornis, A. palmata and O. faveolata are broadcast spawners, introducing genetic diversity through sexual recombination of gametes during annual spawning events. Successful reproduction during this time is critical for curbing the deleterious effects of inbreeding depression, and in successfully restoring wild colonies to self-sustaining levels of genetic diversity. A critical step in the reproductive cycle of these species is the success of gamete fertilization following mass spawning events. Several abiotic causes of gametic incompatibilities have been reliably observed in these species, and incompatibility between certain genotypes has been shown to occur.

This dataset represents the collection of gametes from three coral species following nine spawning events in the Florida Keys during two spawning years (2019 and 2022), reciprocal fertilization trials with gametes from each parent and determined fertilization success for each cross.

Additionally, tissue fragments were collected from each A. cervicornis parent, DNA was isolated from the tissue and single nucleotide polymorphism analyses were performed using the Axiom Coral-Algae Genotyping array (Axiom AcropSNP, ThermoFisher Scientific). This data package contains images of coral eggs post fertilization trial and the results in spreadsheet format. The raw A. cervicornis single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data are also provided.