Widespread genetic similarity between Northwest Atlantic populations of the horse mussel, Modiolus modiolus - CSV from https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/cc3e54d1-354a-4b03-8188-db64a79b7491

Effective conservation planning relies on understanding population connectivity which can be informed by genomic data. This is particularly important for sessile species like the horse mussel (Modiolus modiolus), a key habitat-forming species and conservation priority in Atlantic Canada), yet little genomic information is available to describe horse mussel connectivity patterns. We used more than 8000 restriction-site associated DNA sequencing-derived single nucleotide polymorphisms and a panel of 8 microsatellites to examine genomic connectivity among horse mussel populations in the Bay of Fundy, along the Scotian Shelf, and in the broader northwestern Atlantic extending to Newfoundland. Despite phenotypic differences between sampling locations, we found an overall lack of genetic diversity and population structure in horse mussels in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. All sampled locations had low heterozygosity, very low FST, elevated inbreeding coefficients, and deviated from Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, highlighting generally low genetic diversity across all metrics. Principal components analysis, Admixture analysis, pairwise FST calculations, and analysis of outlier loci (potentially under selection) all showed no independent genomic clusters within the data, and an analysis of molecular variance showed that less than 1% of the variation within the SNP dataset was found between sampling locations. Our results suggest that connectivity is high among horse mussel populations in the Northwest Atlantic, and coupled with large effective population sizes, this has resulted in minimal genomic divergence across the region. These results can inform conservation design considerations in the Bay of Fundy and support further integration into the broader regional conservation network.

Cite this data as: Van Wyngaarden, Mallory et al. (2024). Widespread genetic similarity between Northwest Atlantic populations of the horse mussel, Modiolus modiolus. Published: May 2025. Coastal Ecosystem Science Division, Maritimes Region, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, NS.

Champ	Valeur
Dernière modification de la donnée	16 janvier 2026
Dernière modification de la métadonnée	16 janvier 2026
Créé le	16 janvier 2026
Format	CSV
Licence	License not specified
Datastore active	False
Has views	False
Id	381261e1-c809-4435-bfc0-c1f6819d5d1a
Package id	c2ffe12d-3de7-47c0-88a7-faf21f9b62a5
Position	0
State	active

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