Haplotype distribution and connectivity of the white sea urchin Tripneustes ventricosus across the Brazilian biogeographic province

Sea urchins play important roles in marine ecosystems as key herbivores and some species have wide geographic range. The Atlantic white sea urchin Tripneustes ventricosus is abundant in many rock reefs of the eastern and western Atlantic, and may be found in high densities in Atolls and Archipelagos. Despite the importance of sea urchins in insular ecosystems, there is no study evaluating the genetic structure and the origin of the white sea urchin in isolated ecosystems. Such information is crucial to understand the connectivity and genetic diversity of these populations from the tropical Atlantic provinces. To evaluate the origin of the white sea urchin in Fernando de Noronha Archipelago and the genetic features of this population, we conducted studies on the population structure of the white sea urchin using mitochondrial DNA (COI), in two regions within the Brazilian biogeographic province and compared with other regions in the Atlantic. The white sea urchin from Fernando de Noronha was found to be genetically distinct, with F_ST ranging from 0.3 to 0.9 from other populations in Atlantic. The sharing of haplotypes between the Brazilian coast and the archipelago suggests that insular species derived from the Brazilian coast, rather than the East Atlantic. Moreover, all other Atlantic populations were genetically isolated, with low genetic diversity being a common characteristic among them (ranging from 0.0011 to 0.0022). The low connectivity found within populations might be related to the presence of soft barriers among the Brazilian biogeographic province. The low nucleotide diversity may also suggest that T. ventricosus may have undergone bottleneck processes at some stage of their evolution. This study has important implications on the geographic distribution, population structure and gene flow of the white sea urchin among the Atlantic regions. Further studies should evaluate the biological and ecological aspects of the species in both insular and continental marine ecosystems.