The species complexes in the tropical Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific, however, do not form separate monophyletic lineages. Congruent patterns between mitochondrial and nuclear gene trees of giant barrel sponges provided evidence for the existence of multiple reproductively isolated species, particularly where they occurred in sympatry. We compared a phylogenetic tree constructed from 285 alleles of the nuclear intron ATPsβ to the 17 mitochondrial haplotypes. In total, we obtained 395 combined sequences of the mitochondrial CO1 and ATP6 markers, which resulted in 17 different haplotypes. Giant barrel sponges from 17 coral reef systems across the globe were sequenced for mitochondrial (partial CO1 and ATP6 genes) and nuclear (ATPsβ intron) DNA markers. Using molecular data, we assessed whether giant barrel sponges in each oceanic realm represented separate monophyletic lineages. In this study, we used molecular techniques to study populations of giant barrel sponges across the globe and assessed whether the genetic structure of these populations agreed with current taxonomic consensus or, in contrast, whether there was evidence of cryptic species.
Three species of giant barrel sponge are currently recognized in two distinct geographic regions, the tropical Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific.
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