Regina L Cunha

• PhD
• Researcher at University of Algarve

Recent advances in genomics are an essential contributor to the assessment of fish stocks by providing a finescale identification of the species’ genetic boundaries. The blackspot seabream, Pagellus bogaraveo, is a commercial sparid distributed across the northeast (NE) Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Within the NE Atlantic, three P. bogaraveo stoc...

Chromosomal inversions can play an important role in divergence and reproductive isolation by building and maintaining distinct allelic combinations between evolutionary lineages. Alternatively, they can take the form of balanced polymorphisms that segregate within populations until one arrangement becomes fixed. Many questions remain about how inv...

Chromosomal inversions can play an important role in divergence and reproductive isolation by building and maintaining distinct allelic combinations between evolutionary lineages. Alternatively, they can take the form of balanced polymorphisms that segregate within populations over time until one arrangement becomes fixed. Many questions remain abo...

Marine species exhibiting wide distributional ranges are frequently subdivided into discrete genetic units over limited spatial scales. This is often due to specific life-history traits or oceanographic barriers that prevent gene flow. Fine-scale sampling studies revealed distinct phylogeographic patterns in the northeastern Atlantic and the Medite...

Background The order and orientation of genes encoded by animal mitogenomes are typically conserved, although there is increasing evidence of multiple rearrangements among mollusks. The mitogenome from a Brazilian brown mussel (hereafter named B1) classified as Perna perna Linnaeus, 1758 and assembled from Illumina short-length reads revealed an un...

The olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) occupies a wide range within the tropical and subtropical areas of the Pacific, Indian, and Southern Atlantic Oceans. Although occurring in large numbers, the IUCN status for this species is "vulnerable" due to existing threats in their nesting sites. We report the first genetic data on L. olivace...

The cover image is based on the Original Article Distinctive genetic signatures of two fairy shrimp species with overlapping ranges in Iberian temporary ponds, by Lopes da Cunha et al. https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.13782.

• Temporary lentic water bodies host biotic assemblages adapted to the transient nature of these freshwater habitats. Fairy shrimps (Crustacea, Branchiopoda, Anostraca) are one of the most important biological components of these unique environments and have a fossil record dating back to the Middle Jurassic (>150 million years). • Some anostracan...

Caecidae is a species-rich family of microsnails with a worldwide distribution. Typical for many groups of gastropods, caecid taxonomy is largely based on overt shell characters. However, identification of species using shell characteristics is problematic due to their rather uniform, tubular shells, the presence of different growth stages, and a h...

Background: Evolutionary patterns of scleractinian (stony) corals are difficult to infer given the existence of few diagnostic characters and pervasive phenotypic plasticity. A previous study of Hawaiian Montipora (Scleractinia: Acroporidae) based on five partial mitochondrial and two nuclear genes revealed the existence of a species complex, grou...

Human activities such as trade and transport have increased considerably in the last decades, greatly facilitating the introduction and spread of non-native species at a global level. In the Iberian Peninsula, Fundulus heteroclitus , a small euryhaline coastal fish with short dispersal, was found for the first time in the mid-1970s. Since then, F....

Human activities such as trade and transport have increased considerably in the last decades, greatly facilitating the introduction and spread of non-native species at a global level. In the Iberian Peninsula, Fundulus heteroclitus , a small euryhaline coastal fish with short dispersal, was found for the first time in the mid-1970s. Since then, F....

Human activities such as trade and transport have increased considerably in the last decades, greatly facilitating the introduction and spread of non-native species at a global level. In the Iberian Peninsula, Fundulus heteroclitus , a small euryhaline coastal fish with short dispersal, was found for the first time in the mid-1970s. Since then, F....

Paucity of data on population structure and connectivity in deep sea species remains a major obstacle to their sustainable management and conservation in the face of ever increasing fisheries pressure and other forms of impacts on deep sea ecosystems. The roughhead grenadier Macrourus berglax presents all the classical characteristics of a deep sea...

Two genera of terrestrial slugs (Arion and Geomalacus) display a striking disproportion in species richness in the Iberian Peninsula. While there are 17 Iberian endemic species in Arion, morphological criteria only recognize four species within Geomalacus. Sequence data were used to test whether these differences could result from: (1) cryptic dive...

Small pelagic fishes have the ability to disperse over long distances and may present complex evolutionary histories. Here, Old World Anchovies (OWA) were used as a model system to understand genetic patterns and connectivity of fish between the Atlantic and Pacific basins. We surveyed 16 locations worldwide using mtDNA and 8 microsatellite loci fo...

Transition zones are of high evolutionary interest because unique patterns of spatial variation are often retained. Here, we investigated the phylogeography of the peacock blenny, Salaria pavo, a small marine intertidal fish that inhabits rocky habitats of the Mediterranean and the adjacent Atlantic Ocean. We screened 170 individuals using mitochon...

Pairwise FST and ΦST and Djost values; AMOVA and SAMOVA results; Mantel test results.

The Iberian Peninsula has an extensive record of species displaying strong genetic structure as a result of their survival in isolated pockets throughout the Pleistocene ice ages. We used mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data to analyze phylogeographic patterns in endemic land snails from a valley of central Portugal (Vale da Couda), putatively a...

Bioclimatic variables Bioclimatic variables for current conditions retrieved from WorldClim dataset (Hijmans et al., 2005).

List of individuals, COI and ITS1 haplotypes, haplogroups and location sites

Sample location and statistics Sample location and summary statistics for the genus Candidula.

Evolutionary divergence between haplogroups Estimates of net evolutionary divergence between haplogroups (axis on the left, dark grey bars ± standard deviation) and within lineages (axis on the right, light grey bars ±standard deviation), based on Tamura-Nei distances.

Oceanic archipelagos are the ideal setting for investigating processes that shape species assemblages. Focusing on keyhole limpets, genera Fissurella and Diodora from Cape Verde Islands, we used an integrative approach combining molecular phylogenetics with ocean transport simulations to infer species distribution patterns and analyse connectivity....

A large array of species and species complexes from the Iberian Peninsula display strong genetic subdivisions indicative of past population isolation in separate glacial refugia as a result of survival throughout the Pleistocene ice ages. We used mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data to analyse phylogeographic patterns in a group of endemic land...

A large array of species and species complexes from the Iberian Peninsula display strong genetic subdivisions indicative of past population isolation in separate glacial refugia as a result of survival throughout the Pleistocene ice ages. We used mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data to analyse phylogeographic patterns in a group of endemic land...

Marine organisms with long pelagic larval stages are expected to exhibit low genetic differentiation due to their potential to disperse over large distances. Growing body of evidence, however, suggests that marine populations can differentiate over small spatial scales. Here we focused on black-lip pearl oysters from the Persian Gulf that are thoug...

Ancient oceanic archipelagos of similar geological age are expected to accrue comparable numbers of endemic lineages with identical life history strategies, especially if the islands exhibit analogous habitats. We tested this hypothesis using marine snails of the genus Conus from the Atlantic archipelagos of Cape Verde and Canary Islands. Together...

Material S1. Phylogenetic relationships of the currently recognized species within the genus Perna. The maximum likelihood topology of a mitochondrial data set (COI) is shown. Numbers above and below nodes correspond to ML bootstrap values and Bayesian posterior probabilities, respectively. Gray boxes indicate the three clades within P. perna recov...

Material S2. Phylogenetic relationships of the currently recognized species within the genus Perna. The maximum likelihood topology of a nuclear data set (ITS) using the GTR+Γ evolutionary model is shown. Numbers above and below nodes correspond to ML bootstrap values and Bayesian posterior probabilities, respectively.

The accuracy of phylogenetic inference can be significantly improved by the addition of more taxa and by increasing the spatial coverage of sampling. In previous studies, the brown mussel Perna perna showed a sister–lineage relationship between eastern and western individuals contiguously distributed along the South African coastline. We used mitoc...

Three populations with distinctive shell patterns that do not correspond to any other known Africonus species reported to date were found in the island of Boa Vista, Cape Verde Islands. Phylogenetic analyses based on a partial fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) including all available Africonus species from the Cape Ve...

Chemosynthetic ecosystems are distributed worldwide in fragmented habitats harbouring seemingly highly specialized communities. Yet, shared taxa have been reported from highly distant chemosynthetic communities. These habitats are distributed in distinct biogeographical regions, one of these being the so-called Atlantic Equatorial Belt (AEB). Here,...

Unravelling the genetic structure and phylogeographic patterns of deep-sea sharks is particularly challenging given the inherent difficulty in obtaining samples. The deep-sea shark Centroscymnus crepidater is a medium-sized benthopelagic species that exhibits a circumglobal distribution occurring both in the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans. Contra...

Allele distributions. Distribution of the alleles found for each locus at the different sites sampled. Note that not all alleles are represented numerically underneath the respective plot. However, the allelic distribution is represented in the graphs for all alleles. (TIF)

Phylogenetic relationships within Centroscymnus crepidater based on a maximum likelihood analysis of a 655 bp fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I. Numbers above and below nodes correspond to ML bootstrap proportions and Bayesian posterior probabilities, respectively. (EPS)

Phylogenetic relationships within Centroscymnus crepidater based on a maximum likelihood analysis of an 868 bp fragment of the mitochondrial control region. Numbers above and below nodes correspond to ML bootstrap proportions and Bayesian posterior probabilities, respectively. (EPS)

Posterior density distribution of the number of clusters estimated from Geneland analysis. A. Including the Great Meteor Bank sample. B. Excluding the Great Meteor Bank sample. (TIF)

Genetic variation (mtDNA) of the European conger eel, Conger conger, was compared across five locations in the north-eastern Atlantic (Madeira, Azores, South Portugal, North Portugal and Ireland) and one location in the western Mediterranean (Mallorca). Genetic diversity of conger eel was high, and differentiation among regions was not significant....

Vesicomyid bivalves are among the most abundant and diverse symbiotic taxa in chemosynthetic-based ecosystems: more than 100 different vesicomyid species have been described so far. In the present study, we investigated the phylogenetic positioning of recently described vesicomyid species from the Gulf of Guinea and their western Atlantic and Pacif...

GenBank accession numbers, specimen collection sites and depth, maximum collection depth of species used for phylogeny reconstruction. Specimen names are those of Genbank and new names are those from recent revisions of genera and examinations of specimen of 1Krylova et al. [24], 2Krylova and Sahling [20], 3Kojima et al. [16], 4Peek et al. [15], 5O...

The group of small poor cods and pouts from the genus Trisopterus, belonging to the Gadidae family, comprises four described benthopelagic species that occur across the North-eastern Atlantic, from the Baltic Sea to the coast of Morocco, and the Mediterranean. Here, we combined molecular data from mitochondrial (cytochrome b) and nuclear (rhodopsin...

The fire salamander complex is quite diverse in the Iberian Peninsula where nine subspecies of Salamandra salamandra are currently recognized. Here, we analysed the geographical distribution of the subspecies S. s. gallaica and S. s. crespoi using partial sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene of 168 individuals from 12 locations in Portu...

Quaternary climatic fluctuations had major impacts on species’ distributions over the last 2.5 Myr. Expansions and contractions of the polar ice caps throughout glacial cycles strongly affected terrestrial fauna and flora whereas eustatic sea level variations had major consequences on rocky-shore communities. The effect of these glacial episodes on...

Seagrasses are the structural species of one of the most important coastal ecosystems worldwide and support high levels of biodiversity and biomass production. Posidonia is one of the most ancient seagrass genera and displays a contrasting disjunct biogeographic pattern. It contains one single species in the Northern Hemisphere, P. oceanica, which...