Discussion
Our results, based on a comprehensive ABFT genome-wide SNPs dataset
(including larvae from the Slope Sea and spawning adults for the
Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico), confirmed that current ABFT
populations originated from two ancestral populations as previously
hypothesized (RodrÃguez-Ezpeleta et al.
2019). Yet, they also revealed interbreeding in the Slope Sea and an
eastern-western unidirectional gene flow that challenges the assumption
of two isolated spawning areas. Moreover, the identification of
previously unreported inter-specific introgressed regions in the ABFT
nuclear genome and potentially adaptive markers within a newly
discovered putative chromosomal inversion provided evidence to suggest
that there have been recent changes in ABFT connectivity which holds
significant implications for the conservation of the species.