Department of Biological Sciences, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark.
Mol Ecol. 2013 Apr;22(7):1761-2. doi: 10.1111/mec.12143.
Eels are unique species in the biological world. The two North Atlantic eel species, the American eel (Anguilla rostrata) and the European eel (A. anguilla), occupy a broad range of habitats from the Caribbean to Greenland in the western Atlantic and from Morocco to Iceland in the eastern Atlantic, respectively. North Atlantic eels have a catadromous life cycle, spawning only in the Sargasso Sea and spending the majority of their lives in continental (fresh, brackish and coastal) waters. Despite such a wide distribution range, North Atlantic eels have been regarded as a textbook example of panmictic species. In contrast with the large amount of population genetic studies testing the panmixia hypothesis in the European eel, a relatively modest effort has been given to study the population structure of the American eel. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, C^ote et al. (2013) present the most comprehensive American eel data set to date, which includes samples of different life stages obtained throughout all its distribution range in North America. Results show a total lack of genetic differentiation among samples and provide decisive evidence for panmixia in the American eel.
鳗鱼在生物界是独一无二的物种。北大西洋的两种鳗鱼，美洲鳗（Anguilla rostrata）和欧洲鳗（A. anguilla），分别占据了从加勒比海到格陵兰岛的广阔西大西洋和从摩洛哥到冰岛的广阔东大西洋的栖息地。北大西洋鳗鱼具有洄游性的生命周期，仅在马尾藻海产卵，而它们的大部分生命都在大陆（淡水、半咸水和沿海）水域中度过。尽管分布范围如此广泛，但北大西洋鳗鱼一直被视为具有广泛混合种群的典型物种。与大量对欧洲鳗的混合种群假说进行种群遗传研究相比，对美洲鳗种群结构的研究相对较少。在本期《分子生态学》中，C^ote 等人（2013）提出了迄今为止最全面的美洲鳗数据集，其中包括在北美的整个分布范围内获得的不同生命阶段的样本。结果表明样本之间完全没有遗传分化，并为美洲鳗的混合种群提供了决定性证据。
