Divergent sensory and immune gene evolution in sea turtles with contrasting demographic and life histories.

Sea turtles represent an ancient lineage of marine vertebrates that evolved from terrestrial ancestors over 100 Mya. The genomic basis of the unique physiological and ecological traits enabling these species to thrive in diverse marine habitats remains largely unknown. Additionally, many populations have drastically declined due to anthropogenic activities over the past two centuries, and their recovery is a high global conservation priority.

A star is torn-molecular analysis divides the Mediterranean population of Poli's stellate barnacle, (Cirripedia, Chtamalidae).

Poli's stellate barnacle, Poli, populates the Mediterranean Sea, the North-Eastern Atlantic coasts, and the offshore Eastern Atlantic islands. Previous studies have found apparent genetic differences between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean populations of , suggesting possible geological and oceanographic explanations for these differences. We have studied the genetic diversity of 14 populations spanning from the Eastern Atlantic to the Eastern Mediterranean, using two nuclear genes sequences revealing a total of 63 polymorphic sites.

Author Correction: Population-specific signatures of intra-individual mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy and their potential evolutionary advantages.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Population-specific signatures of intra-individual mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy and their potential evolutionary advantages.

Heteroplasmy is the existence of more than one mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variant within a cell. The evolutionary mechanisms of heteroplasmy are not fully understood, despite being a very common phenomenon. Here we combined heteroplasmy measurements using high throughput sequencing on green turtles (Chelonia mydas) with simulations to understand how heteroplasmy modulates population diversity across generations and under different demographic scenarios.

Photoacclimation and induction of light-enhanced calcification in the mesophotic coral .

Corals and their photosymbionts experience inherent changes in light along depth gradients, leading them to have evolved several well-investigated photoacclimation strategies. As coral calcification is influenced by light (a process described as LEC-'light-enhanced calcification'), studies have sought to determine the link between photosynthesis and calcification, but many puzzling aspects still persist. Here, we examine the physiology of , a coral species found at a wide range of depths but that is strictly mesophotic in the Red Sea; and also examines the coupling between photosynthesis and LEC by investigating the response of the coral under several controlled light regimes during a long-term experiment.