The connectivity of Mytilus galloprovincialis in northern Morocco: A gene flow crossroads between continents

Previous population genetic studies on the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis have shown the existence of two well differentiated sets of populations around Southern European coasts, one Atlantic and another Mediterranean. Those two population pools are kept apart by the Almería – Oran Oceanographic Front (AOOF), an oceanographic discontinuity acting either as a cause of such differentiation or simply as a means of maintaining two historically differentiated gene pools. The role of the Gibraltar Strait at shaping mussel larval flow entering the Alboran Sea has been much less addressed, especially regarding mussel swarms inhabiting the northern coast of Morocco. The present study applies seven microsatellite markers to describing the genetic status of northern Moroccan populations of M. galloprovincialis and their relationship with the two well-characterized mussel gene pools from southern Europe. We show that the Atlantic Iberia gene pool extending continuously from the Cantabrian Sea (NE Iberia) to the Alboran Sea (SE Iberia) up to the AOOF is well differentiated from the Atlantic Moroccan mussel. Either an oceanographic barrier or a limited larval dispersal or both, are required to explain this unexpected intercontinental differentiation regarding previous studies on this species. Populations from Atlantic Morocco conformed to a single gene pool (FST ± SD = 0.012 ± 0.007) as opposed to the reported latitudinal barrier to gene flow at Cape Ghir in western Morocco. Additionally, a significant restriction to gene flow was observed between Atlantic Morocco and Alboran Morocco (FST ± SD = 0.038 ± 0.010) in contrast to the reported mussel genetic continuity along the Iberian coast up to AOOF. Three major mussel gene pools appear to meet at this crossroads between continents and between seas, namely, a Mediterranean European subpopulation, an Atlantic Iberia subpopulation including the Alboran Sea, and an Atlantic Morocco subpopulation. Knowledge on genetic patterns across species around the biogeographical breakpoints of Gibraltar and AOOF allows a better understanding of the complexity of dispersal patterns at this crossroads between continents.