The surgeonfish, Acanthurus bahianus, has crossed the Amazon–Orinoco outflow barrier

Genetic diversity of reef fishes around Cuba: a multispecies assessment

“…The results are congruent with previous analysis using cytb sequences (Castellanos-Gell et al 2012). At the level of the distribution area (Atlantic and Caribbean basins), other Acanthurus species, A. chirurgus and A. coerulus, also show genetic homogeneity (Rocha et al 2002).…”

“…At the level of the distribution area (Atlantic and Caribbean basins), other Acanthurus species, A. chirurgus and A. coerulus, also show genetic homogeneity (Rocha et al 2002). However, gene flow in A. bahianus appears to be more restricted across the Amazon-Orinoco outflow barrier, probably as a consequence of habitat preference or larval dispersal capabilities (Castellanos-Gell et al 2012). Similarly, gene flow is high among populations of different surgeonfish species over thousands of kilometers across the Indo-Pacific Ocean, from Hawaii to the eastern Indian Ocean (Eble et al 2011), from the Indo-Pacific region to French Polynesia (Horne et al 2008) and in the Hawaiian Archipelago (Eble et al 2009).…”

“…Significant population differentiation at a small geographic scale (20-50 km) as well as significant genetic isolation between the southern gulfs, separated by 350 km, was identified (Borrell et al 2004;Espinosa et al 2003;García-Machado et al 2001;Robainas et al 2005). Nevertheless, the only study on a Cuban reef fish species, Acanthurus tractus Poey, 1860, has shown no population differentiation in the archipelago using partial cytochrome b sequences (Castellanos-Gell et al 2012). Paris et al (2005) used realistic intra-annual marine current patterns variations to simulate the larval transport of five commercial snapper species around Cuba.…”

“…The pelagic larvae hatch after 24 h (Leis and Rennis 1983;Randall 1961) and spend 69 days in the water column before settling (Sponaugle and Cowen 1996). As mentioned above, genetic homogeneity around Cuba has been reported for this species (Castellanos-Gell et al 2012).…”

Atlantic surgeonfishes bear only minor microstructural changes in highly derived karyotypes

“…(Sorenson et al, 2013). In spite of the conservatism of NORs in these acanthurids, an additional 18S rDNA site was located on pair 13 in the karyotype of A. coeruleus, regarded as the most basal taxon among the analyzed species (Bernal and Rocha, 2011;Castellanos-Gell et al, 2012;Sorenson et al, 2013). The ribosomal site in pair 13 lacks argyrophylic nature indicating an inactive copy of ribosomal gene (Santoro, 2005) or pseudogenes (Affonso et al, 2005;Lima-Filho et al, 2014).…”