Data and code from: Genetic research to guide conservation and the understanding of freshwater eels of the genus Anguilla: A bibliographic analysis
Data files
May 04, 2026 version files 12.74 KB
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Anguilla_species_genes.xlsx
10.12 KB
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Heatmap_code.R
1.12 KB
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README.md
1.50 KB
Abstract
Anguillid eels have unusual catadromous life histories that include long-distance oceanic spawning migrations and an extensive leptocephalus larval duration. Less known is the important role genetic research has played in understanding these mysterious fishes of the genus Anguilla. A bibliographic literature search was conducted on studies using genetic methodologies to understand Anguilla species, and a database of papers from 1973 to 2025 included 335 publications, increasing over time to reach a maximum of 103 between 2020 and 2025. The DNA literature was dominated by studies on A. anguilla, A. japonica, and A. marmorata, but all species have been included in recent phylogenetic studies. In addition to providing a bibliographic database of genetic papers, this review points to the value of multi-gene or whole genome approaches to clarify relationships within and among anguillid eel species. There is also a need for the development of standardised protocols for environmental DNA (eDNA) research with improved species-specific assays, which can help support the conservation of these remarkable fishes that live in both freshwater and the sea.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.hx3ffbgv2
Description of the data and file structure
Studies which used genetic data of species in the genus Anguilla were tabulated and the author, year of publication, species, and gene(s)/genetic technique(s) of interest were recorded. To assess which gene/genetic technique and which species of Anguilla were most highly studied, a heatmap was created that looked at every species of Anguilla and the ten most commonly-used genetic techniques.
Files and variables
File: Heatmap_code.R
Description: Code for use in R that generates a heatmap comparing species of Anguilla and the ten most commonly-used genetic techniques by reading out the Anguilla_species_genes.xlsx file.
File: Anguilla_species_genes.xlsx
Description: Table that records each species in the genus Anguilla and the ten most commonly-used genetic techniques found in the literature. Each row is a species (e.g., A. anguilla, A. japonica). Each column is a type of genetic marker or technique and the values are counts of published studies (or datasets) that used that method for that species—not measurements of DNA itself.
Code/software
RStudio (version 4.5.0) was used to visualise the data, along with packages tidyr (version 1.3.2), and ggplot2.