New insights about species delimitation in red snappers (Lutjanus purpureus and L. campechanus) using multilocus data

[Display omitted] •Molecular species delimitation supports L. purpureus/ L. campechanus as two species.•We found unidirectional gene flow from L. campechanus towards L. purpureus.•The Ne in L. campechanus is three times lower than in L. purpureus. Lutjanus campechanus and Lutjanus purpureus are two commercially important lutjanid fishes (snappers) with non-sympatric distribution throughout Western Atlantic. Even though both taxa have traditionally been regarded as valid species, their taxonomic status remains under debate. In the present study, we used phylogeographic approaches and molecular methods of species delimitation to elucidate the taxonomic issues between both species, based on 1478 base pairs from four genomic regions. We found haplotypes shared between the two species, particularly in relation to nuclear DNA (nuDNA) sequences. The molecular delimitation of species supported the discrimination of L. purpureus and L. campechanus as distinct evolutionary units. Nonetheless, a unidirectional gene flow was found from L. campechanus towards L. purpureus. Therefore, it seems plausible to infer that L. campechanus and L. purpureus are two evolutionary units in which the apparent sharing of haplotypes should be driven by introgression.