Andrello Marco, Bevacqua Daniele, Maes Gregory E, De Leo Giulio A
Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Parma Parma, Italy.
Laboratory of Animal Diversity and Systematics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Leuven, Belgium.
Evol Appl. 2011 Jul;4(4):517-33. doi: 10.1111/j.1752-4571.2010.00167.x. Epub 2010 Nov 27.
The evolutionary enlightened management of species with complex life cycles often requires the development of mathematical models integrating demographic and genetic data. The genetic structure of the endangered European eel (Anguilla anguilla L.) has been thoroughly analyzed in several studies in the past years. However, the interpretation of the key demographic and biologic processes that determine the observed spatio-temporal genetic structure has been very challenging owing to the complex life cycle of this catadromous species. Here, we present the first integrated demographic-genetic model applied to the European eel that explicitly accounts for different levels of larval and adult mixing during oceanic migrations and allows us to explore alternative hypotheses on genetic differentiation. Our analyses show that (i) very low levels of mixing occurring during larval dispersal or adult migration are sufficient to erase entirely any genetic differences among sub-populations; (ii) small-scale temporal differentiation in recruitment can arise if the spawning stock is subdivided in distinct reproductive groups; and (iii) the geographic differentiation component might be overestimated if a limited number of temporal recruits are analyzed. Our study can inspire the scientific debate on the interpretation of genetic structure in other species characterized by complex life cycle and long-range migrations.
对具有复杂生命周期的物种进行进化意义上的明智管理，通常需要开发整合人口统计学和遗传数据的数学模型。在过去几年的多项研究中，已经对濒危欧洲鳗鲡（Anguilla anguilla L.）的遗传结构进行了全面分析。然而，由于这种降河洄游鱼类的生命周期复杂，要解读决定所观察到的时空遗传结构的关键人口统计学和生物学过程一直极具挑战性。在此，我们展示了首个应用于欧洲鳗鲡的综合人口统计学 - 遗传模型，该模型明确考虑了海洋洄游期间幼体和成体不同程度的混合情况，并使我们能够探索关于遗传分化的其他假设。我们的分析表明：（i）幼体扩散或成体洄游期间发生的极低程度的混合足以完全消除亚种群之间的任何遗传差异；（ii）如果产卵群体被细分为不同的繁殖组，招募过程中可能会出现小规模的时间分化；（iii）如果分析的时间招募样本数量有限，地理分化成分可能会被高估。我们的研究能够激发关于其他具有复杂生命周期和远距离洄游特征物种遗传结构解读的科学辩论。
