Homogeneous population of the brown alga Sargassum polycystum in Southeast Asia: possible role of recent expansion and asexual propagation.

ABSTRACT: Southeast Asia has been known as one of the biodiversity hotspots in the world. Repeated glacial cycles during Pleistocene were believed to cause isolation of marine taxa in refugia, resulting in diversification among lineages. Recently, ocean current was also found to be another factor affecting gene flow by restricting larval dispersal in animals. Macroalgae are unique in having mode of reproduction that differs from that of animals. Our study on the phylogeographical pattern of the brown macroalga Sargassum polycystum using nuclear Internal Transcribed Spacer 2 (ITS2), plastidal RuBisCO spacer (Rub spacer) and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit-III (Cox3) as molecular markers revealed genetic homogeneity across 27 sites in Southeast Asia and western Pacific, in sharp contrast to t

SUBMITTER: Chan SW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3798308 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature