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Dryad

VCF for neutral data set in Harpagifer bispinis along the Magellan Province

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Jan 02, 2022 version files 1.52 MB

Abstract

Quaternary glacial cycles shaped the current distribution of polar and cold-temperate biotas. In the Magellan province of South America, ice covering during the last glacial maximum radically altered the landscape/seascape, speciation rate, and the distribution of species. Here we studied nototheniid fishes Harpagifer spp. along the Magellan province reported as two nominal species: H. bispinis in Patagonia and H. palliolatus, endemic to the Falkland/Malvinas Islands. Previous molecular analyses in Harpagifer showed that the genus may have recently colonized southern South America ~ 1 million years ago. The extensive use in systematics of molecular markers to determine evolutionary units has been improved due to the advances in NGS. Combining traditional DNA sequences and non-targeted GBS-SNPs we evaluated both, the presence of effective evolutionary units and contemporary patterns of genetic structure across the Magellan province. DNA sequences consistently showed an absence of phylogeographic structure, with shared dominant haplotypes between nominal species, pointing towards the presence of a single evolutionary unit. In contrast, SNPs identified three groups in Patagonia, two located north and south of the Strait of Magellan, and a third well-differentiated one in the Falkland/Malvinas Islands. Connectivity analyses using SNPs suggest limited and asymmetric gene flow from Patagonia to the Falkland/Malvinas. Contrasting rough- and fine-scale genetic evolutionary patterns recorded in Harpagifer enhance the relevance in the use of combined methodologies for species delimitation analyses. Depending on the question to be addressed, we could discriminate among phylogeographic structure discarding incipient speciation, and contemporary spatial differentiation processes linked to drift-migration equilibrium models.