Phylogeography Study of Ammodytes personatus in Northwestern Pacific: Pleistocene Isolation, Temperature and Current Conducted Secondary Contact

Zhiqiang Han,Tianxiang Gao,Takashi Yanagimoto,Yaping Zhang,Robert Desalle

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0037425

Abstract

To assess the role of historical process and contemporary factors in shaping population structures in Northwestern Pacific, mitochondrial control region sequences were analyzed to characterize the phylogeography and population structure of the Japanese sand lance Ammodytes personatus. A total of 429 individuals sampled from 17 populations through the species' range are sequenced. Two distinct lineages are detected, which might have been divergent in the Sea of Japan and Pacific costal waters of Japanese Island, during the low sea level. Significant genetic structure is revealed between the Kuroshio and Oyashio Currents. However, significant genetic structure is also detected in the Sea of Japan, contracting expected homogenization hypothesis in Tsushima Current. The haplotype frequency of lineages in both sides of Japanese Island and significant genetic structure between north and south groups revealed that the distribution of lineage B and north group were highly limited by the annual sea temperature. The lack of lineage B in Qingdao population with low sea temperature reflects the sea temperature barrier. Lack of genetic structure in the south group and north group populations indicated that ocean currents within groups facilitated the dispersal of A. personatus.

Highlights

Geographical patterns of genetic variation reflect both historical process and present gene flow attributable to the biological characteristics of the organism under study [1,2]
The present results revealed significant genetic divergences in A. personatus among samples along the Japanese Island with the haplotype clusters on the NJ tree and the reduced mediannetwork
Many authors suggest that Pleistocene glaciations were the most significant event to shape the phylogeographic mitochondrial DNA patterns and population structure in marine fish species [8,9]

Summary

Introduction

Geographical patterns of genetic variation reflect both historical process and present gene flow attributable to the biological characteristics of the organism under study [1,2]. A number of mechanisms have been suggested to explain how population structure can evolve in a marine environment without any obvious physical boundary to gene flow (reviewed in [3]). Historical process associated with climatic oscillations through geological time is one of the most important factors in determining the current distribution of species. Climatic changes have had a major influence on the formation of species, the establishment of major intraspecific phylogenetic lineages, and the patterning of the present-day distribution of plant and animal species [4]. A number of contemporary-acting evolutionary mechanisms have been recognized as important factors in generating genetic structuring within marine species. Dispersal ability of larva and adult, local adaptation, oceanographic currents, sea temperature, salinity habitat discontinuities and isolation by distances, have been responsible for the population differentiation in marine species [3,5,6,7]

Methods

Results

Conclusion