Mounting evidence of cryptic species in the marine realm emphasizes the necessity to thoroughly revise our current perceptions of marine biodiversity and species distributions. Here, we used mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (mtDNA COI) and nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (nrDNA ITS) to investigate cryptic diversity and potential hybridization in the Japanese mantis shrimpOratosquilla oratoriain the Northwestern (NW) Pacific. Both mitochondrial and nuclear gene genealogies revealed two cryptic species in this morphotaxon, which was further confirmed by extensive population-level analyses. One cryptic species is restricted to cold waters with a distribution range corresponding to temperate affinities, while the other dwelled warm waters influenced by the Kuroshio Current. Their divergence was postulated to be attributable to the vicariant event which resulted from the isolation of the Sea of Japan during the middle Pliocene (c. 3.85 Mya, 95% HPD 2.23–6.07 Mya). Allopatric speciation was maintained by limited genetic exchange due to their habitat preferences. Furthermore, the observation of recombinant nrDNA ITS sequence and intra-individual ITS polymorphism suggested recent hybridization event of the two cryptic species occurred in sympatric areas. Our study also illustrated that the Changjiang River outflow might act as an oceanic barrier to gene flow and promoted allopatric diversification inO. oratoriaspecies complex.

Hydrothermal vents and cold seeps are typical deep-sea chemosynthetically-driven ecosystems that allow high abundance of specialized macro-benthos. To gather knowledge about the genetic basis of adaptation to these extreme environments, species shared between different habitats, especially for the dominant species, are of particular interest. The galatheid squat lobster, Shinkaia crosnieri Baba and Williams, 1998, is one of the few dominant species inhabiting both deep-sea hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. In this study, we performed transcriptome analyses of S. crosnieri collected from the Iheya North hydrothermal vent (HV) and a cold seep in the South China Sea (CS) to provide insights into how this species has evolved to thrive in different deep-sea chemosynthetic ecosystems. We analyzed 5347 orthologs between HV and CS to identify genes under positive selection through the maximum likelihood approach. A total of 82 genes were identified to be positively selected and covered diverse functional categories, potentially indicating their importance for S. crosnieri to cope with environmental heterogeneity between deep-sea vents and seeps. Among 39,806 annotated unigenes, a large number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between HV and CS, including 339 and 206 genes significantly up-regulated in HV and CS, respectively. Most of the DEGs associated with stress response and immunity were up-regulated in HV, possibly allowing S. crosnieri to increase its capability to manage more environmental stresses in the hydrothermal vents. We provide the first comprehensive transcriptomic resource for the deep-sea squat lobster, S. crosnieri, inhabiting both hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. A number of stress response and immune-related genes were positively selected and/or differentially expressed, potentially indicating their important roles for S. crosnieri to thrive in both deep-sea vents and cold seeps. Our results indicated that genetic adaptation of S. crosnieri to different deep-sea chemosynthetic environments might be mediated by adaptive evolution of functional genes related to stress response and immunity, and alterations in their gene expression that lead to different stress resistance. However, further work is required to test these proposed hypotheses. All results can constitute important baseline data for further studies towards elucidating the adaptive mechanisms in deep-sea crustaceans.

Pleistocene glacial cycles associated with geological and climatic changes have been suggested to affect the distribution and abundance of marine organisms in the north-western Pacific. In addition to historical processes, several contemporary forces are associated with spatial distributions and genetic structuring of marine species. Herein, we gathered partial mitochondrial control region sequences of chub mackerel Scomber japonicus from 14 localities over most of its geographical range in the north-western Pacific to infer the effect of Pleistocene climatic fluctuations on its historical demography, and to assess the role of historical process and contemporary factors in shaping present-day patterns of genetic differentiation within this species. Phylogeographic patterns revealed two distinct lineages that originated in vicariance during the Middle Pleistocene. However, there was no evidence of phylogeographic partitioning of haplotypes over the sampled range. Population structure analyses indicated a high degree of genetic homogeneity among chub mackerel populations. Demographic analyses indicated both lineages experienced Late Pleistocene population expansion. The observed genetic pattern of chub mackerel is consistent with a scenario of the survival of this species in at least two allopatric glacial refugia during the glacial maxima of the Pleistocene followed by massive dispersals throughout the north-western Pacific and species-specific ecological processes facilitating contemporary gene flow.