Dipartimento di Biologia, Sezioni di Genetica e Biologia Animale ed Ambientale, Università di Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy.
Dipartimento di Bioscienze, Biotecnologie e Biofarmaceutica, Università di Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy.
PLoS One. 2019 Mar 20;14(3):e0213826. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213826. eCollection 2019.
Heterogeneity in geomorphological and hydrographical conditions throughout the Mediterranean Sea could be the driving factors behind the significant differences between putative sub-populations, although the existence of a large panmictic population of striped dolphin Stenella coeruleoalba (Meyen 1833) in this marine region could not be excluded. However, understanding the ecological implications of such genetic differentiation is difficult, as inferences about gene flow are usually made on evolutionary time scales and not along the ecological time frame over which most management and conservation practices are applied. In fact, as stated by the IUCN Red List, in the case of species assessed as vulnerable, the degree of genetic exchange between populations within a biogeographic region and its ecological implications represent a fascinating challenge that should be very deeply explored. This is even more significant in the Gulf of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea, Central-eastern Mediterranean Sea), where the geomorphological and hydrographic characteristics support the hypothesis of a separated striped dolphin population genetically diverging from its original Mediterranean counterpart. To assess this hypothesis, a genetic analysis was carried out on DNA fragments of the mitochondrial cyt b gene to explore the evolutionary origin of S. coeruleoalba in the investigated area and its genetic diversity in comparison with available sequences from other Mediterranean and Atlantic populations. Results were discussed indicating ecological implications and suggesting conservation objectives. Moreover, a delphinid systematic was also suggested.
地中海地貌和水文条件的异质性可能是假定亚种群之间存在显著差异的驱动因素，尽管不能排除在该海域存在一个大型宽吻海豚 Stenella coeruleoalba（Meyen 1833）的泛种群。然而，由于关于基因流的推断通常是在进化时间尺度上进行的，而不是在大多数管理和保护实践所应用的生态时间框架内进行的，因此理解这种遗传分化的生态影响是困难的。事实上，正如 IUCN 红色名录所述，对于被评估为易危的物种，生物地理区域内种群之间的遗传交换程度及其生态影响代表了一个引人入胜的挑战，应该进行深入探讨。在地中海东北亚得里亚海的塔兰托湾（意大利东北部），这种情况更为明显，那里的地貌和水文特征支持了一个假设，即一个分离的条纹海豚种群在遗传上与其原始的地中海种群不同。为了评估这一假设，对线粒体 cyt b 基因的 DNA 片段进行了遗传分析，以探讨在所研究区域中 S. coeruleoalba 的进化起源及其与来自其他地中海和大西洋种群的现有序列相比的遗传多样性。结果表明了一些生态影响，并提出了保护目标。此外，还提出了一个海豚系统。
