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Molecular evidence for genetic mixing of Arctic and Antarctic subpolar populations of planktonic foraminifers

Nature volume 405, pages 43–47 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Bipolarity, the presence of a species in the high latitudes separated by a gap in distribution across the tropics, is a well-known pattern of global species distribution. But the question of whether bipolar species have evolved independently at the poles since the establishment of the cold-water provinces 16–8 million years ago, or if genes have been transferred across the tropics since that time, has not been addressed. Here we examine genetic variation in the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene of three bipolar planktonic foraminiferal morphospecies. We identify at least one identical genotype in all three morphospecies in both the Arctic and Antarctic subpolar provinces, indicating that trans-tropical gene flow must have occurred. Our genetic analysis also reveals that foraminiferal morphospecies can consist of a complex of genetic types. Such occurrences of genetically distinct populations within one morphospecies may affect the use of planktonic foraminifers as a palaeoceanographic proxy for climate change and necessitate a reassessment of the species concept for the group.

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Figure 1: Sampling localities and distribution of the high-latitude morphospecies.
Figure 2: Foraminiferal SSU rDNA phylogeny, highlighting the evolutionary placement of the planktonic foraminiferal high-latitude morphospecies.
Figure 3: Sequence variability in the SSU rRNA gene.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements We thank C. Pudsey and T. Paramour for their assistance during the 1997 Antarctic cruise on RRS James Clark Ross (British Antarctic Survey), and S. Troelstra and colleagues for their support during the 1997 Denmark Strait expedition on RV Professor Logachev (Netherlands Foundation for Scientific Research and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland). We also thank A. Davison, S. Goodacre, J. Brookfield, P. Sharp and B. Clarke for discussions and comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the Leverhulme Trust, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and the NERC.

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Author notes

  1. Christopher M. Wade

    Present address: Department of Zoology, The Natural History Museum, London, SW7 5BD, UK

  2. Richard Dingle

    Present address: Geological Institute, University of Copenhagen, Oster Voldgade 10, DK-1350, Copenhagen K, Denmark

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JW, UK

    Kate F. Darling, Iain A. Stewart & Dick Kroon

  2. Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT , UK

    Kate F. Darling & Andrew J. Leigh Brown

  3. Institute of Genetics, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2UH, UK

    Christopher M. Wade

  4. British Antarctic Survey, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK

    Richard Dingle

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Correspondence to Kate F. Darling.

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Darling, K., Wade, C., Stewart, I. et al. Molecular evidence for genetic mixing of Arctic and Antarctic subpolar populations of planktonic foraminifers. Nature 405, 43–47 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35011002

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