Genetic Diversity and Evolution of Marine Animals Isolated in Marine Lakes

Abstract

How do marine organisms genetically differentiate and speciate in illimitable oceans? It is considerably difficult to obtain clear answers to this question due to the following reasons. Marine organisms that reproduce by releasing numerous eggs and larvae are able to disperse over large distances and can therefore be distributed over large geographic areas. Such marine organisms have a large population size, gene flow between distant populations occurs frequently, and interspecies hybridization sometimes occurs (Kuriiwa et al., 2007). Even geographically well-separated populations may be connected genetically, because there are few barriers to prevent gene flow in the oceans (Mayr, 1954; Palumbi, 1994). In contrast to the open ocean environment, the marine lakes of Palau (Western Caroline Islands), which are surrounded entirely by land and isolated from the sea, provide unique local environments for genetic differentiation of marine organisms (Dawson and Hamner, 2005; Gotoh et al., 2009; Goto et al., 2011). We have focused on marine lakes as isolated marine environments and have conducted continuous evolutionary studies of marine organisms in the Palau Islands for the past 13 years.