Despite the ecological importance of deep-sea cephalopods, little is known about their genetic diversity or population dynamics. The cephalopod species Cranchia scabra, Pyroteuthis margaritifera, and Vampyroteuthis infernalis are commonly collected in midwater samples from both the Gulf of Mexico and northwestern Atlantic Ocean but, despite their common appearance in trawls and important roles in marine food webs, no genetic studies of population connectivity exist for these species. Here, Sanger sequencing of three conserved genetic loci and ddRADseq techniques were used to examine population genetic dynamics in these deep-sea species. Genetic diversity is lowest in C. scabra, which appears to be in a population growth stage, and highest in V. infernalis. Population structure was unique to V. infernalis but does not appear to be the result of ocean-basin vicariance, thus possible alternative explanations are explored, specifically environmental variation in dissolved oxygen. The genetic connectivity between these geographically disparate sites suggests these three cephalopod species could be resilient to localized environmental disturbances in the Gulf of Mexico.

尽管深海头足类动物具有生态重要性，但对其遗传多样性或种群动态知之甚少。头足类物种Cranchia scabra，Pyroteuthis margaritifera和Vampyroteuthis infernalis通常在墨西哥湾和西北大西洋的中层水样中采集，但尽管它们常见于拖网且在海洋食物网中起着重要作用，但没有对种群连通性进行基因研究这些物种存在。在这里，使用三个保守的遗传基因座的Sanger测序和ddRADseq技术来检查这些深海物种的种群遗传动态。遗传多样性最低C.糙，似乎正处于种群增长阶段，并且在V. infernalis中最高。群体结构是独一无二的，以V. infernalis但并不显得海洋盆隔离分化的结果，因此有可能不同的解释进行了探索，在溶解氧具体环境变化。这些地理位置不同的地点之间的遗传联系表明，这三种头足类物种可能对墨西哥湾的局部环境干扰具有抵抗力。