Genomic resequencing provides new insights into ecological diversification of four Saccharina japonica varieties

Saccharina japonica is a commercially and ecologically important seaweed and shows rapid ecological speciation. This kelp represents an excellent model for understanding the process and genetic mechanism of diversification and speciation of brown seaweeds. Up to now, there was limited research about the ecological speciation of seaweeds from genomic perspective. In this study, we conducted genome resequencing of four varieties of S. japonica and two sister species (S. angustata and S. longissima) to investigate the genetic mechanism of ecological speciation.