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Connectivity of populations within and between major biogeographic regions of the tropical Pacific in Conus ebraeus, a widespread marine gastropod

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Abstract

Information on genetic connectivity and structure of populations in the tropical Pacific is critical for making inferences about the origins and maintenance of diversity in this region. Sequences of the mitochondrial COI gene from 92 individuals of the trans-Pacific gastropod Conus ebraeus from eight localities spanning the tropical Pacific were analyzed to determine whether populations in the western, central, and eastern Pacific exhibit genetic structure, to examine the demographic histories of populations, and to infer patterns of gene flow. A total of 43 unique haplotypes were recovered, including a common haplotype that occurred in six of the eight populations examined. AMOVA and pairwise F-statistics showed that populations in the western and central Pacific were significantly differentiated from populations in the eastern Pacific, but no other evidence of structure. Bayesian isolation–migration (IM) analysis suggested that populations in the western and central Pacific separated from those in eastern Pacific during the Pleistocene. Examination of mismatch distributions and results from IM revealed that populations in the western and central Pacific expanded during the Pleistocene. Gene flow across the East Pacific Barrier appears to occur predominantly westward.

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Acknowledgments

Dan Lindstrom, Laura Geyer, Alan Kohn, Steve Vollmer, Kirstie Kaiser, and Hank Chaney assisted in obtaining or aided in access to specimens. Don Barclay and family greatly assisted in fieldwork and collections in American Samoa. Mike Hadfield and members of the Kewalo Marine Lab (University of Hawaii) facilitated collections on Oahu. The crew of the R/V Urracá (STRI) assisted with obtaining specimens from Panama. We are extremely grateful for access to specimens from the Invertebrate Zoology collections at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. We also appreciate comments on this manuscript from Diarmaid Ó Foighil, Evan Braswell and several anonymous reviewers. Aspects of this work were initiated while TFD was a Tupper Fellow at STRI and completed with support from NSF (0718370) and start-up funds from the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, 1109 Geddes Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    T. F. Duda Jr

  2. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092, Balboa, Ancon, Republic of Panama

    T. F. Duda Jr & H. A. Lessios

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  1. T. F. Duda Jr
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  2. H. A. Lessios
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Correspondence to T. F. Duda Jr.

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Duda, T.F., Lessios, H.A. Connectivity of populations within and between major biogeographic regions of the tropical Pacific in Conus ebraeus, a widespread marine gastropod. Coral Reefs 28, 651–659 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-009-0485-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-009-0485-9

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