Sequencing Ultraconserved Elements (UCEs) for Marine Population Genomics: A Proof-of-Concept Using a Deep-Sea Mussel Species.

ABSTRACT: Ultraconserved elements (UCEs) have emerged as a powerful tool for resolving deep evolutionary relationships due to their low DNA quality requirements and broad taxonomic applicability. While their utility for intraspecific and shallow-divergence studies is growing, only a few studies have explored their performance in marine taxa, some of them with metapopulations spanning thousands of kilometers. Here, we employed the UCE approach to investigate the population genomics of Gigantidas platifrons-a deep-sea mussel with a long larval dispersal period that exhibits a panmictic genetic structure across its extensive distribution range in the chemosynthetic ecosystems of the Western Pacific. With its published whole genome and prior restriction site-associated DNA sequencing using IIB re

SUBMITTER: Li YX 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12797253 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature