Functional significance of phylogeographic structure in a toxic benthic marine microbial eukaryote over a latitudinal gradient along the East Australian Current.

ABSTRACT: Genetic diversity in marine microbial eukaryotic populations (protists) drives their ecological success by enabling diverse phenotypes to respond rapidly to changing environmental conditions. Despite enormous population sizes and lack of barriers to gene flow, genetic differentiation that is associated with geographic distance, currents, and environmental gradients has been reported from planktonic protists. However, for benthic protists, which have reduced dispersal opportunities, phylogeography and its phenotypic significance are little known. In recent years, the East Australian Current (EAC) has intensified its southward flow, associated with the tropicalization of temperate waters. Benthic harmful algal species have been increasingly found in south-eastern Australia. Yet little is kno

SUBMITTER: Verma A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7381561 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature