Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34178457›Full record

ArticlePeerJ2021

Genetic connectivity between Atlantic bluefin tuna larvae spawned in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Mediterranean Sea.

Carolina Johnstone, Montse Pérez, Estrella Malca, José María Quintanilla, Trika Gerard, Diego Lozano-Peral, Francisco Alemany, John Lamkin, Alberto García, Raúl Laiz-Carrión

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PeerJ, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
1.9field-weighted citation impact, top 16% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Ensuring the future of Atlantic bluefin tuna.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.

Carolina JohnstoneCentro Oceanográfico de Málaga, Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Fuengirola, Málaga, Spain.
Montse PérezCentro Oceanográfico de Vigo, Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Vigo, Pontevedra, Spain.ORCID 0000-0002-1772-8984
Estrella MalcaCooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America.ORCID 0000-0002-9182-5854
José María QuintanillaCentro Oceanográfico de Málaga, Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Fuengirola, Málaga, Spain.
Trika GerardSoutheast Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Miami, Florida, United States of America.
Diego Lozano-PeralCentro de Supercomputación y Bioinnovación, Servicios Centrales de Apoyo a la Investigación, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain.ORCID 0000-0001-8072-0355
Francisco AlemanyInternational Commision for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, Madrid, Spain.
John LamkinSoutheast Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Miami, Florida, United States of America.
Alberto GarcíaCentro Oceanográfico de Málaga, Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Fuengirola, Málaga, Spain.
Raúl Laiz-CarriónCentro Oceanográfico de Málaga, Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Fuengirola, Málaga, Spain.
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas · ESNOAA National Marine Fisheries Service · USInstituto Español de Oceanografía · ESInternational Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas · ESUniversidad de Málaga · ES

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The highly migratory Atlantic bluefin tuna (ABFT) is currently managed as two distinct stocks, in accordance with natal homing behavior and population structuring despite the absence of barriers to gene flow. Larval fish are valuable biological material for tuna molecular ecology. However, they have hardly been used to decipher the ABFT population structure, although providing the genetic signal from successful breeders. For the first time, cooperative field collection of tuna larvae during 2014 in the main spawning area for each stock, the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and the Mediterranean Sea (MED), enabled us to assess the ABFT genetic structure in a precise temporal and spatial frame exclusively through larvae. Partitioning of genetic diversity at nuclear microsatellite loci and in the mitochondrial control region in larvae spawned contemporarily resulted in low significant fixation indices supporting connectivity between spawners in the main reproduction area for each population. No structuring was detected within the GOM after segregating nuclear diversity in larvae spawned in two hydrographically distinct regions, the eastern GOM (eGOM) and the western GOM (wGOM), with the larvae from eGOM being more similar to those collected in the MED than the larvae from wGOM. We performed clustering of genetically characterized ABFT larvae through Bayesian analysis and by Discriminant Analysis of Principal Components (DAPC) supporting the existence of favorable areas for mixing of ABFT spawners from Western and Eastern stocks, leading to gene flow and apparent connectivity between weakly structured populations. Our findings suggest that the eastern GOM is more prone for the mixing of breeders from the two ABFT populations. Conservation of this valuable resource exploited for centuries calls for intensification of tuna ichthyoplankton research and standardization of genetic tools for monitoring population dynamics.

Indexed as

Eastern Gulf of MexicoFisheries managementFish spawningLarval fishMicrosatellite lociMitochondrial control regionNorth Western MediterraneanPopulation structureThunnus thynnusWestern Gulf of Mexico

Identifiers

PMID34178457
PMCPMC8210807
OpenAlexW3170020944

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.