Absence of spatial genetic structure in common dentex (Dentex dentex Linnaeus, 1758) in the Mediterranean Sea as evidenced by nuclear and mitochondrial molecular markers

PLoS One. 2018 Sep 12;13(9):e0203866. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203866. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

The common dentex, Dentex dentex, is a fish species which inhabits marine environments in the Mediterranean and Northeast Atlantic regions. This is an important species from an ecological, economic and conservation perspective, however critical information on its population genetic structure is lacking. Most samples were obtained from the Mediterranean Sea (17 sites) with an emphasis around Corsica (5 sites), plus one Atlantic Ocean site. This provided an opportunity to examine genetic structuring at local and broader scales to provide science based data for the management of fishing stocks in the region. Two mitochondrial regions were examined (D-loop and COI) along with eight microsatellite loci. The COI data was combined with publicly available sequences and demonstrated past misidentification of common dentex. All markers indicated the absence of population genetic structure from the Bay of Biscay to the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Bayesian approaches, as well as the statistical tests performed on the allelic frequencies from microsatellite loci, indicated low differentiation between samples; there was only a slight (p = 0.05) indication of isolation by distance. Common dentex is a marine fish species with a unique panmictic population in the Mediterranean and likely in the Atlantic Ocean as well.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alleles
  • Animals
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Bayes Theorem
  • Cell Nucleus / genetics*
  • DNA, Mitochondrial / analysis
  • DNA, Mitochondrial / genetics
  • Gene Flow
  • Gene Frequency / genetics
  • Genetic Variation
  • Genetics, Population / methods
  • Mediterranean Sea
  • Microsatellite Repeats / genetics
  • Mitochondria / genetics*
  • Perciformes / genetics*
  • Phylogeny

Substances

  • DNA, Mitochondrial

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Région Corse, Union Européenne.