Genomic methods reveal independent demographic histories despite strong morphological conservatism in fish species
Neves, Jessika M.M. ; Nolen, Zachary J. LU
; Fabré, Nidia N.
; Mott, Tamí
and Pereira, Ricardo J.
(2021)
In Heredity
127(3).
p.323-333
- Abstract
Human overexploitation of natural resources has placed conservation and management as one of the most pressing challenges in modern societies, especially in regards to highly vulnerable marine ecosystems. In this context, cryptic species are particularly challenging to conserve because they are hard to distinguish based on morphology alone, and thus it is often unclear how many species coexist in sympatry, what are their phylogenetic relationships and their demographic history. We answer these questions using morphologically similar species of the genus Mugil that are sympatric in the largest coastal Marine Protected Area in the Tropical Southwestern Atlantic marine province. Using a sub-representation of the genome, we show that... (More)
Human overexploitation of natural resources has placed conservation and management as one of the most pressing challenges in modern societies, especially in regards to highly vulnerable marine ecosystems. In this context, cryptic species are particularly challenging to conserve because they are hard to distinguish based on morphology alone, and thus it is often unclear how many species coexist in sympatry, what are their phylogenetic relationships and their demographic history. We answer these questions using morphologically similar species of the genus Mugil that are sympatric in the largest coastal Marine Protected Area in the Tropical Southwestern Atlantic marine province. Using a sub-representation of the genome, we show that individuals are assigned to five highly differentiated genetic clusters that are coincident with five mitochondrial lineages, but discordant with morphological information, supporting the existence of five species with conserved morphology in this region. A lack of admixed individuals is consistent with strong genetic isolation between sympatric species, but the most likely species tree suggests that in one case speciation has occurred in the presence of interspecific gene flow. Patterns of genetic diversity within species suggest that effective population sizes differ up to two-fold, probably reflecting differences in the magnitude of population expansions since species formation. Together, our results show that strong morphologic conservatism in marine environments can lead to species that are difficult to distinguish morphologically but that are characterized by an independent evolutionary history, and thus that deserve species-specific management strategies.
(Less)
- author
- Neves, Jessika M.M.
; Nolen, Zachary J.
LU
; Fabré, Nidia N.
; Mott, Tamí
and Pereira, Ricardo J.
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021-09
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Heredity
- volume
- 127
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 323 - 333
- publisher
- Macmillan
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85109644458
- pmid:34226671
- ISSN
- 0018-067X
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41437-021-00455-4
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Funding Information: This work is part of the Long Term Ecological Research—Brazil site PELD-CCAL (Projeto Ecológico de Longa Duração—Costa dos Corais, Alagoas) funded by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development—CNPq (#441657/2016-8), the Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel—PELD/CAPES (#23038.000452/2017-16) and the Research Support Foundation of the State of Alagoas—FAPEAL (#60030.1564/2016). This network was also funded by Bayerisches Hochschulzentrum für Lateinamerika— BAYLAT (#914-20.1.1). JMMN received a scholarship provided by Coordination of Improvement of Higher Level Personnel—CAPES (#88887.137815/2017-00 and #88881.189448/2018-01), and TM received a CNPq fellowship (#309904/2015–3 and #312291/2018-3) and FAPEAL fellowship (#60030.000406/2017). Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
- id
- 33a896cf-c86e-4b99-bce1-efceb94de08f
- date added to LUP
- 2021-09-06 16:42:39
- date last changed
- 2024-06-15 15:51:31
@article{33a896cf-c86e-4b99-bce1-efceb94de08f,
abstract = {{<p>Human overexploitation of natural resources has placed conservation and management as one of the most pressing challenges in modern societies, especially in regards to highly vulnerable marine ecosystems. In this context, cryptic species are particularly challenging to conserve because they are hard to distinguish based on morphology alone, and thus it is often unclear how many species coexist in sympatry, what are their phylogenetic relationships and their demographic history. We answer these questions using morphologically similar species of the genus Mugil that are sympatric in the largest coastal Marine Protected Area in the Tropical Southwestern Atlantic marine province. Using a sub-representation of the genome, we show that individuals are assigned to five highly differentiated genetic clusters that are coincident with five mitochondrial lineages, but discordant with morphological information, supporting the existence of five species with conserved morphology in this region. A lack of admixed individuals is consistent with strong genetic isolation between sympatric species, but the most likely species tree suggests that in one case speciation has occurred in the presence of interspecific gene flow. Patterns of genetic diversity within species suggest that effective population sizes differ up to two-fold, probably reflecting differences in the magnitude of population expansions since species formation. Together, our results show that strong morphologic conservatism in marine environments can lead to species that are difficult to distinguish morphologically but that are characterized by an independent evolutionary history, and thus that deserve species-specific management strategies.</p>}},
author = {{Neves, Jessika M.M. and Nolen, Zachary J. and Fabré, Nidia N. and Mott, Tamí and Pereira, Ricardo J.}},
issn = {{0018-067X}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{323--333}},
publisher = {{Macmillan}},
series = {{Heredity}},
title = {{Genomic methods reveal independent demographic histories despite strong morphological conservatism in fish species}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41437-021-00455-4}},
doi = {{10.1038/s41437-021-00455-4}},
volume = {{127}},
year = {{2021}},
}