Dataset Information

Interbreeding between local and translocated populations of a cleaner fish in an experimental mesocosm predicts risk of disrupted local adaptation.

ABSTRACT: Translocation of organisms within or outside its native range carries the risk of modifying the community of the recipient ecosystems and induces gene flow between locally adapted populations or closely related species. In this study, we evaluated the genetic consequences of large-scale translocation of cleaner wrasses that has become a common practice within the salmon aquaculture industry in northern Europe to combat sea lice infestation. A major concern with this practice is the potential for hybridization of escaped organisms with the local, recipient wrasse population, and thus potentially introduce exogenous alleles and breaking down coadapted gene complexes in local populations. We investigated the potential threat for such genetic introgressions in a large seminatural mesocosm basin. The experimental setting represented a simulated translocation of corkwing wrasse (Symphodus melops) that occurs on a large scale in the Norwegian salmon industry. Parentage assignment analysis of mesocosm's offspring revealed 30% (195 out of 651 offspring) interbreeding between the two populations, despite their being genetically (F ST = 0.094, p < 0.05) and phenotypically differentiated. Moreover, our results suggest that reproductive fitness of the translocated western population doubled that of the local southern population. Our results confirm that human translocations may overcome the impediments imposed by natural habitat discontinuities and urge for immediate action to manage the genetic resources of these small benthic wrasses.

SUBMITTER: Blanco Gonzalez E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6580302 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Interbreeding between local and translocated populations of a cleaner fish in an experimental mesocosm predicts risk of disrupted local adaptation.

Blanco Gonzalez Enrique E Espeland Sigurd H SH Jentoft Sissel S Hansen Michael M MM Robalo Joana I JI Stenseth Nils C NC Jorde Per Erik PE

Ecology and evolution 20190509 11

Translocation of organisms within or outside its native range carries the risk of modifying the community of the recipient ecosystems and induces gene flow between locally adapted populations or closely related species. In this study, we evaluated the genetic consequences of large-scale translocation of cleaner wrasses that has become a common practice within the salmon aquaculture industry in northern Europe to combat sea lice infestation. A major concern with this practice is the potential for ...[more]

PMID: 31236251

Similar Datasets

Project description:Pollution and other anthropogenic effects have driven a decrease in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in the Iberian Peninsula. The restocking effort carried out in the 1980s, with salmon from northern latitudes with the aim of mitigating the decline of native populations, failed, probably due to the deficiency in adaptation of foreign salmon from northern Europe to the warm waters of the Iberian Peninsula. This result would imply that the Iberian populations of Atlantic salmon have experienced local adaptation in their past evolutionary history, as has been described for other populations of this species and other salmonids. Local adaptation can occur by divergent selections between environments, favoring the fixation of alleles that increase the fitness of a population in the environment it inhabits relative to other alleles favored in another population. In this work, we compared the genomes of different populations from the Iberian Peninsula (Atlantic and Cantabric basins) and Scotland in order to provide tentative evidence of candidate SNPs responsible for the adaptive differences between populations, which may explain the failures of restocking carried out during the 1980s. For this purpose, the samples were genotyped with a 220,000 high-density SNP array (Affymetrix) specific to Atlantic salmon. Our results revealed potential evidence of local adaptation for North Spanish and Scottish populations. As expected, most differences concerned the comparison of the Iberian Peninsula with Scotland, although there were also differences between Atlantic and Cantabric populations. A high proportion of the genes identified are related to development and cellular metabolism, DNA transcription and anatomical structure. A particular SNP was identified within the NADP-dependent malic enzyme-2 (mMEP-2*), previously reported by independent studies as a candidate for local adaptation in salmon from the Iberian Peninsula. Interestingly, the corresponding SNP within the mMEP-2* region was consistent with a genomic pattern of divergent selection.

Dataset Information

Interbreeding between local and translocated populations of a cleaner fish in an experimental mesocosm predicts risk of disrupted local adaptation.

Publications

Interbreeding between local and translocated populations of a cleaner fish in an experimental mesocosm predicts risk of disrupted local adaptation.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets