Data from: Phylogeography and demographic history of two widespread Indo-Pacific mudskippers (Gobiidae: Periophthalmus)

This study provides a first description of the phylogeographic patterns and evolutionary history of two species of the mudskipper genus Periophthalmus. These amphibious gobies are distributed throughout the whole Indo-Pacific region and Atlantic coast of Africa, in peritidal habitats of soft-bottom coastal ecosystems. Three sequence datasets of two widely distributed species, Periophthalmus argentilineatus and P. kalolo, were obtained by amplifying and sequencing two mtDNA markers (D-loop and 16S rDNA) and the nDNA rag1 region. The three datasets were then used to perform phylogeographic, demographic and population genetic analyses. Our results indicate that tectonic events and past climatic oscillations strongly contributed to shape present genetic differentiation, phylogeographic and demographic patterns. We found support for the monophyly of P. kalolo, and only shallow genetic differentiation between East-African and Indo-Malayan populations of this species. However, our collections of the morphospecies P. argentilineatus include three molecularly distinct lineages, one of them more closely related to P. kalolo. The presence of Miocenic timings for the most recent common ancestors of some of these morphologically similar clades, suggests the presence of strong stabilising selection in mudskippers’ habitats. At population level, demographic analyses and palaeoecological records of mangrove ecosystems suggest that Pleistocene bottlenecks and expansion plus secondary contact events of the studied species were associated with recurrent sea transgressions during interglacials, and sea regressions or stable regimes during glacials, respectively.

本研究首次阐述了弹涂鱼属（Periophthalmus）两个物种的系统地理格局与演化历史。这类两栖鰕虎鱼广泛分布于整个印度-太平洋区域以及非洲大西洋沿岸的软底质海岸生态系统的潮间带生境中。本研究通过扩增并测序两个线粒体DNA（mtDNA）标记（D-loop区与16S rDNA）以及核DNA（nDNA）rag1区域，获取了两个广布物种——银线弹涂鱼（Periophthalmus argentilineatus）和卡氏弹涂鱼（P. kalolo）的三组序列数据集。随后利用这三组数据集开展系统地理、种群历史动态以及群体遗传学分析。研究结果表明，构造事件与古气候震荡显著塑造了当前的遗传分化、系统地理格局与种群历史动态模式。我们的分析支持卡氏弹涂鱼为单系群，且该物种的东非种群与印马种群之间仅存在微弱的遗传分化。然而，我们针对形态种银线弹涂鱼的采样样本中，包含三个分子特征显著不同的支系，其中一个支系与卡氏弹涂鱼的亲缘关系更近。部分形态相似支系的最近共同祖先时间可追溯至中新世（Miocenic），这暗示弹涂鱼生境中存在强烈的稳定选择作用。在种群层面，种群历史动态分析与红树林生态系统的古生态记录显示，研究物种的更新世（Pleistocene）瓶颈事件、种群扩张以及二次接触事件，分别与间冰期频发的海侵、冰期的海退或稳定气候环境密切相关。