Distribution : Although the native range of
Styela plicata is not known with certainty, the prevailing hypothesis is that it comes from the NW Pacific area.
S. plicata would have then dispersed to other tropical and warm-water regions by ship fouling, likely since the early transoceanic navigation times. Moreover, high genetic variability and the putatively most ancient alleles have not only been found in the NW Pacific populations (e.g. Sakushima, Hong Kong) but also in other oceanic basins (e.g. North East Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Ocean). Thus, we could not find any clear genetic signal in favour (or against) the hypothesis on the NW Pacific origin of this species.
Références :
Pineda et al. (2011)
