Population connectivity and phylogeography of a coastal fish, Atractoscion aequidens (Sciaenidae), across the Benguela Current region: evidence of an ancient vicariant event

• Published in: PloS one 2014-02, Vol.9 (2), p.e87907-e87907
• Main Authors: Henriques, Romina, Potts, Warren M, Santos, Carmen V, Sauer, Warwick H H, Shaw, Paul W
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adults; Analysis; Analysis of Variance; Animal Distribution - physiology; Animals; Atlantic Ocean; Atractoscion aequidens; Benguela Current; Biodiversity; Biological evolution; Biology; Blenniidae; Coasts; Commercial fishing; Connectivity; Demographics; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Dispersal; Divergence; DNA; DNA, Mitochondrial - genetics; Eggs; Evolution; Evolutionary genetics; Fish; Fish eggs; Fisheries; Fishing; Gene Flow; Genetic diversity; Genetic markers; Genetic Markers - genetics; Genetic Variation; Genetics, Population; Genotype; Geographical distribution; Geological Phenomena; History; Homogeneity; Larvae; Lipophrys pholis; Marine ecology; Marine environment; Microsatellite Repeats - genetics; Microsatellites; Migrants; Mitochondrial DNA; Ocean currents; Perciformes - genetics; Perciformes - physiology; Phylogenetics; Phylogeography; Population; Population genetics; Populations; Science; Sea level; Species; Species diversity; Species Specificity; Substructures; Substructuring; Upwelling; Water Movements
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0087907

Contemporary patterns of genetic diversity and population connectivity within species can be influenced by both historical and contemporary barriers to gene flow. In the marine environment, present day oceanographic features such as currents, fronts and upwelling systems can influence dispersal of eggs/larvae and/juveniles/adults, shaping population substructuring. The Benguela Current system in the southeastern Atlantic is one of the oldest upwelling systems in the world, and provides a unique opportunity to investigate the relative influence of contemporary and historical mechanisms shaping the evolutionary history of warm-temperate fish species. Using the genetic variation in the mitochondrial DNA Control Region and eight nuclear microsatellite DNA loci, we identified the presence of two highly divergent populations in a vagile and warm-temperate fish species, Atractoscion aequidens, across the Benguela region. The geographical distributions of the two populations, on either side of the perennial upwelling cell, suggest a strong correlation between the oceanographic features of the system and the breakdown of gene flow within this species. Genetic divergence (mtDNA φ ST = 0.902, microsatellite F ST = 0.055: probability of genetic homogeneity for either marker = p