DNA Barcoding of Corals

The corals of the Western Indian Ocean are remarkable both in terms of diversity and in terms of how poorly they have been characterised. Corals, both hard and soft have been described with reference to taxonomic collections from the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Triangle. The basis for this approach has been that the Coral Triangle and Great Barrier reef are the origin of coral diversity and evolution.

On 28 July 2016, Dr Angus Macdonald lecturer from University of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa gave a talk on DNA barcoding of corals. The talk focused on how the coral diversity of the Western Indian Ocean needs to be re-evaluated using a combination of molecular and taxonomic methods.