Data from: How old are you? Genet age estimates in a clonal animal

Foundation species such as redwoods, seagrasses and corals are often long-lived and clonal. Genets may consist of hundreds of members (ramets) and originated hundreds to thousands of years ago. As climate change and other stressors exert selection pressure on species, the demography of populations changes. Yet, because size does not indicate age in clonal organisms, demographic models are missing data necessary to predict the resilience of many foundation species. Here, we correlate somatic mutations with genet age of corals and provide the first, preliminary estimates of genet age in a colonial animal. We observed somatic mutations at five microsatellite loci in rangewide samples of the endangered coral, Acropora palmata (n = 3352). Colonies harboured 342 unique mutations in 147 genets. Genet age ranged from 30 to 838 years assuming a mutation rate of 1.195−04 per locus per year based on colony growth rates and 236 to 6500 years assuming a mutation rate of 1.542−05 per locus per year based on sea level changes to habitat availability. Long-lived A. palmata genets imply a large capacity to tolerate past environmental change, and yet recent mass mortality events in A. palmata suggest that capacity is now being frequently exceeded.诸如红杉、海草与珊瑚这类基础物种（foundation species）通常寿命悠长且为无性繁殖类群。基株（genet）可由数百个分株（ramet）构成，其起源可追溯至数百年乃至数千年前。随着气候变化与其他胁迫因子对物种施加选择压力，种群统计学特征会发生改变。然而，由于无性繁殖生物的个体大小无法反映其实际年龄，种群统计学模型缺少预测多数基础物种恢复力所需的关键数据。本研究将体细胞突变（somatic mutations）与珊瑚基株年龄相关联，并首次对集群动物的基株年龄提供了初步估算结果。我们在濒危麋角珊瑚（Acropora palmata）的全域采样样本（n = 3352）中，于5个微卫星位点（microsatellite loci）检测到了体细胞突变。147个基株中共携带342种独特的体细胞突变。基于通过珊瑚群体生长率测算得到的每位点每年1.195×10^-4的突变率，推算得出基株年龄区间为30至838年；而基于生境可获得性的海平面变化数据得到的每位点每年1.54×10^-5的突变率，则推算出基株年龄区间为236至6500年。长寿的麋角珊瑚基株意味着其具备极强的耐受过往环境变化的能力，但近期该物种发生的大规模死亡事件表明，这一耐受能力如今正频繁被突破。