Genetic flow directionality and geographical segregation in a Cymodocea nodosa genetic diversity network

TL;DR

This study uses a novel method based on Jensen-Shannon divergence to infer the directionality of gene flow and geographical segregation in Cymodocea nodosa, revealing evolutionary patterns consistent with natural evidence.

Contribution

It introduces and tests a new methodology for inferring gene flow directionality using geographical segregation in marine plant populations.

Findings

Revealed directed gene flow network in Cymodocea nodosa

Identified genetic segregation patterns during evolution

Results align with natural and independent analyses

Abstract

We analyse a large data set of genetic markers obtained from populations of Cymodocea nodosa, a marine plant occurring from the East Mediterranean to the Iberian-African coasts in the Atlantic Ocean. We fully develop and test a recently introduced methodology to infer the directionality of gene flow based on the concept of geographical segregation. Using the Jensen-Shannon divergence, we are able to extract a directed network of gene flow describing the evolutionary patterns of Cymodocea nodosa. In particular we recover the genetic segregation that the marine plant underwent during its evolution. The results are confirmed by natural evidence and are consistent with an independent cross analysis.