View article

Population structuring of marine organisms is not always easily understood. In open marine areas without apparent barriers to migration, species with high dispersal capacity are expected to be organized in large populations that, ideally, could represent the best example of panmictic units more or less genetically homogeneous. However, there are a number of examples contradicting this panmixia theory. In some cases, physical barriers like straits (eg the Gibraltar Strait separating Mediterranean and Atlantic populations, see a review in Patarnello et al.(2007)) or currents (eg the East Australian Current for sea urchin (Banks et al., 2007)) can be identified as obstacles for population homogenization across a species range.

As there is much variation in DNA markers which is easily detected, there has been a growing interest in their application to better understand population structuring. Microsatellite loci, for example …