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Does asymmetric gene flow among matrilines maintain the evolutionary potential of the European eel?
Using evolutionary theory to predict the dynamics of populations is one of the aims of evolutionary conservation. In endangered species, with geographic range extending over continuous areas, the predictive capacity of evolutionary‐based conservation measures greatly depends on the accurate identifi...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4984505/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27551384 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2098 |
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author | Baltazar‐Soares, Miguel Eizaguirre, Christophe |
author_facet | Baltazar‐Soares, Miguel Eizaguirre, Christophe |
author_sort | Baltazar‐Soares, Miguel |
collection | PubMed |
description | Using evolutionary theory to predict the dynamics of populations is one of the aims of evolutionary conservation. In endangered species, with geographic range extending over continuous areas, the predictive capacity of evolutionary‐based conservation measures greatly depends on the accurate identification of reproductive units. The endangered European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is a highly migratory fish species with declining population due to a steep recruitment collapse in the beginning of the 1980s. Despite punctual observations of genetic structure, the population is viewed as a single panmictic reproductive unit. To understand the possible origin of the detected structure in this species, we used a combination of mitochondrial and nuclear loci to indirectly evaluate the possible existence of cryptic demes. For that, 403 glass eels from three successive cohorts arriving at a single location were screened for phenotypic and genetic diversity, while controlling for possible geographic variation. Over the 3 years of sampling, we consistently identified three major matrilines which we hypothesized to represent demes. Interestingly, not only we found that population genetic models support the existence of those matriline‐driven demes over a completely panmictic mode of reproduction, but also we found evidence for asymmetric gene flow amongst those demes. We uphold the suggestion that the detection of demes related to those matrilines reflect a fragmented spawning ground, a conceptually plausible consequence of the low abundance that the European eel has been experiencing for three decades. Furthermore, we suggest that this cryptic organization may contribute to the maintenance of the adaptive potential of the species. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4984505 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-49845052016-08-22 Does asymmetric gene flow among matrilines maintain the evolutionary potential of the European eel? Baltazar‐Soares, Miguel Eizaguirre, Christophe Ecol Evol Original Research Using evolutionary theory to predict the dynamics of populations is one of the aims of evolutionary conservation. In endangered species, with geographic range extending over continuous areas, the predictive capacity of evolutionary‐based conservation measures greatly depends on the accurate identification of reproductive units. The endangered European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is a highly migratory fish species with declining population due to a steep recruitment collapse in the beginning of the 1980s. Despite punctual observations of genetic structure, the population is viewed as a single panmictic reproductive unit. To understand the possible origin of the detected structure in this species, we used a combination of mitochondrial and nuclear loci to indirectly evaluate the possible existence of cryptic demes. For that, 403 glass eels from three successive cohorts arriving at a single location were screened for phenotypic and genetic diversity, while controlling for possible geographic variation. Over the 3 years of sampling, we consistently identified three major matrilines which we hypothesized to represent demes. Interestingly, not only we found that population genetic models support the existence of those matriline‐driven demes over a completely panmictic mode of reproduction, but also we found evidence for asymmetric gene flow amongst those demes. We uphold the suggestion that the detection of demes related to those matrilines reflect a fragmented spawning ground, a conceptually plausible consequence of the low abundance that the European eel has been experiencing for three decades. Furthermore, we suggest that this cryptic organization may contribute to the maintenance of the adaptive potential of the species. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2016-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC4984505/ /pubmed/27551384 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2098 Text en © 2016 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Original Research Baltazar‐Soares, Miguel Eizaguirre, Christophe Does asymmetric gene flow among matrilines maintain the evolutionary potential of the European eel? |
title | Does asymmetric gene flow among matrilines maintain the evolutionary potential of the European eel? |
title_full | Does asymmetric gene flow among matrilines maintain the evolutionary potential of the European eel? |
title_fullStr | Does asymmetric gene flow among matrilines maintain the evolutionary potential of the European eel? |
title_full_unstemmed | Does asymmetric gene flow among matrilines maintain the evolutionary potential of the European eel? |
title_short | Does asymmetric gene flow among matrilines maintain the evolutionary potential of the European eel? |
title_sort | does asymmetric gene flow among matrilines maintain the evolutionary potential of the european eel? |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4984505/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27551384 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2098 |
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