FEBRUARY
10, 2020
by Peter
Rüegg, ETH
Zurich
An
international research team from ETH Zurich and French universities has studied
genetic diversity among fish around the world for the first time. Their
research produced a map that will serve as a tool in improving the protection
of species and genetic diversity in the future.
In a
population of animals or plants, genetic diversity can
decline much more quickly than species diversity in
response to various stress factors: disease, changes to habitat or climate, and
so on. Yet not much is known about fish genetic diversity around
the world.
Help on
that front is now on the way from an international team of scientists from
French universities and ETH Zurich. They have produced the first global
distribution map for genetic diversity among freshwater and marine fish.
Furthermore, they identified the environmental factors that
are instrumental in determining the distribution of genetic diversity. Their
study was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.
Genetic
diversity is unevenly distributed
To begin
their study, the researchers analyzed a database that contained the data of
over 50,000 DNA sequences representing 3,815 species of marine fish and
1,611 species of freshwater fish. From this sequence data, the
scientists estimated the average genetic diversity in sections of bodies of
water, each section measuring 200 square kilometers.
Their
analysis revealed that genetic diversity is unevenly distributed throughout
marine and freshwater fish. The greatest genetic diversity was found among
marine fish in the western Pacific Ocean, the northern Indian Ocean and the
Caribbean. Among freshwater fish, genetic diversity was greatest in South
America, but comparatively low in Europe.
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