Barcode database of scleractinian corals (Cnidaria, Scleractinia) in two tropical marine protected areas (Perhentian and Redang Islands Marine Parks, Malaysia)

<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Coral reefs are particularly vulnerable to climate change as an elevation of sea surface temperatures would cause most coral species to bleach rapidly by expulsing their algal symbionts Symbiodiniaceae. Loss of these symbionts in coral species during stress-related "bleaching" events can lead to mass mortality of these corals and the collapse of the associated reef ecosystem. This makes the inventory of the diversity of coral species and their symbionts, in particular, genetic diversity, critical to the understanding of the assessment of coral reef resilience and ecosystem sustainability. The use of DNA barcoding has been proven useful in biodiversity assessments and monitoring schemes of marine ecosystems, particularly the highly diverse coral reef ecosystems. However, this information is lacking in Malaysia. Therefore, a comprehensive reference database of genetic sequences that represent the present coral reef biodiversity in the country would be needed. Here, we barcoded the scleractinian coral samples, the reef-building corals, collected from the two marine protected areas of Malaysia, Perhentian and Redang Islands Marine Parks, using the cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) marker. The data released from this project represent the first comprehensive reference database of the scleractinian coral diversity on the northeastern coasts of Malaysian coral reefs. A total of 62 nucleotide COI sequences of scleractinian corals collected from the two marine parks were obtained. Of these, a total of 34 taxa belonging to nine families were included in the dataset. This dataset added information on the occurrence and distribution of scleractinian coral species from the two tropical marine protected areas in the South China Sea (Western Pacific).</span></p>