Evidence of connectivity of bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) throughout the Indian Ocean inferred from genome-wide genetic markers

In order to resolve the population connectivity of bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) within the Indian Ocean, we analyzed thousands of genome-wide markers of individuals from a broad geographic area of the Indian Ocean as well as from locations in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Our results support a single panmictic population of bigeye tuna within the Indian Ocean isolated from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Introduction Previous studies on the population structure of bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) support inter-oceanic genetic separation (Alvarado Bremer et al. 1998; Chow et al. 2000; Durand et al. 2005; Martínez et al. 2006). However, the few studies that applied genetic methods to understanding population structure of this species within the Indian Ocean did not observe signs of heterogeneity, supporting the existence of a single panmictic IOTC-2020-WPTT22(AS)-16