o:1685 Seascape genomics and mitogenomic phylogeography of the sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus) en Permeable phylogeographic barriers characterize the vast open ocean, boosting gene flow and counteracting population differentiation and speciation of widely distributed and migratory species. However, many widely distributed species consists of distinct populations throughout their distribution, evidencing that our understanding of how the marine environment triggers population and species divergence are insufficient. The sailfish is a circumtropical and highly migratory billfish that inhabits warm and productive areas. Despite its ecological and socioeconomic importance as a predator and fishery resource, the species is threatened by overfishing, requiring innovative approaches to improve their management and conservation status. Thus, we presented a novel high-quality reference genome for the species and applied a seascape genomics approach to understand how marine environmental features may promote local adaptation and how it affects gene flow between populations. We delimit two populations between the Atlantic and Indo-Western Pacific oceans and detect outlier loci correlated with sea surface temperature, salinity, oxygen, and chlorophyll concentrations. However, the most significant explanatory factor that explains the differences between populations was isolation by distance. Despite recent population drops, the sailfish populations are not inbred. For billfishes in general, genome-wide heterozygosity was found to be relatively low compared to other marine fishes, evidencing the need to counteract overfishing effects. In addition, in a climate change scenario, management agencies must implement state-of-the-art sequencing methods, consider our findings in their management plans, and monitor genome-wide heterozygosity over time to improve sustainable fisheries and the long-term viability of its populations. Population-Structure; Genetic Diversity; Marine Fish; Fisheries; Evolution; Accurate; Speciation; Discovery; Framework; Inference 1552099 10.1093/gbe/evad042 2023-06-06T15:56:54.450Z 44 yes 46 Bruno Lopes da Silva Ferrette Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre / LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics / Santa Cecília University 0000-0002-3108-9867 Axel Janke Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre / LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics / Goethe University person 0000-0002-9394-1904 Fernando Fernandes Mendonça Universidade Federal de São Paulo person 0000-0002-4806-9897 Bruno Leite Mourato Universidade Federal de São Paulo person 0000-0001-8405-3983 Freddy Arocha Universidad de Oriente person 0000-0002-5814-0626 Matheus Marcos Rotundo Universidade Santa Cecília person 0000-0003-1886-5320 Daniela Rosa Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera / Universidade do Algarve person 0000-0001-7156-7408 Rui Coelho Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera / Universidade do Algarve person 0000-0003-3813-5157 Samuel Mackey Williams The University of Queensland person 0000-0002-2251-2774 Menno J. De Jong Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre person 0000-0003-2131-9048 Sven Winter Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre / University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna person 0000-0002-1890-0977 Raphael T. F. Coimbra Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre / Goethe University person 0000-0002-6075-7203 application/pdf 7799572 https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/o:1685 no yes 16 70 1552253 Genome Biology and Evolution 19 15 4 Oxford University Press 2023