Panmixia in European eel revisited: no genetic difference between maturing adults from southern and northern Europe

Previous studies of genetic structure in the European eel have resulted in seemingly conflicting results, ranging from no detectable heterogeneity to small but statistically significant differences and isolation by distance patterns among eels sampled across the continental range. Differences with r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Heredity 2009-07, Vol.103 (1), p.82-89
Main Authors: Palm, S, Dannewitz, J, Prestegaard, T, Wickström, H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anguilla anguilla
Animal populations
Animals
Biologi
Biology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Brackish
Cytogenetics
Ecology
Eels - genetics
Eels - physiology
effective population size
Europe
Evolutionary Biology
Female
Fish
Genetic structure
Genetic Variation
Genotype & phenotype
Heterogeneity
Human Genetics
Male
Marine
Microsatellite Repeats
NATURAL SCIENCES
NATURVETENSKAP
null alleles
original-article
Plant Genetics and Genomics
Population Dynamics
Population genetics
Sexual Behavior, Animal
silver eels
Spawning
statistical power
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Summary:Previous studies of genetic structure in the European eel have resulted in seemingly conflicting results, ranging from no detectable heterogeneity to small but statistically significant differences and isolation by distance patterns among eels sampled across the continental range. Differences with respect to sampling design and choice of molecular markers, combined with a lack of power estimates, complicate comparisons of existing results. In this study we have used six microsatellite markers and, for the first time, compared maturing silver eels of known age from southern and northern Europe (Italy and Baltic Sea). In comparison with previous studies, our data may give a better representation of potential spawning stocks because eels were sampled when having begun their migration toward the presumed spawning area in the Sargasso Sea. Despite large sample sizes (404 and 806 individuals) we could not observe any signs of genetic differentiation (average F ST =−0.00003, P =0.61), and a power analysis showed that the true level of heterogeneity (if existing) must be exceedingly small to have remained undetected (say, F ST
ISSN:0018-067X
1365-2540
1365-2540
DOI:10.1038/hdy.2009.51