Not out of the Mediterranean: Atlantic populations of the gorgonian Paramuricea clavata are a separate sister species under further lineage diversification.

ABSTRACT: The accurate delimitation of species boundaries in nonbilaterian marine taxa is notoriously difficult, with consequences for many studies in ecology and evolution. Anthozoans are a diverse group of key structural organisms worldwide, but the lack of reliable morphological characters and informative genetic markers hampers our ability to understand species diversification. We investigated population differentiation and species limits in Atlantic (Iberian Peninsula) and Mediterranean lineages of the octocoral genus Paramuricea previously identified as P. clavata. We used a diverse set of molecular markers (microsatellites, RNA-seq derived single-copy orthologues [SCO] and mt-mutS [mitochondrial barcode]) at 49 locations. Clear segregation of Atlantic and Mediterranean li

SUBMITTER: Coelho MAG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9912747 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature