POPULATION STRUCTURE OF PLAICE (Pleuronectes platessa L.) IN NORTHERN EUROPE: A COMPARISON OF RESOLVING POWER BETWEEN MICROSATELLITES AND MITOCHONDRIAL DNA DATA

• Main Author: Olsen J. L
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.543.9318; http://dissertations.ub.rug.nl/FILES/faculties/science/2004/g.g.hoarau/c4.pdf

We used Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism (SSCP) of mtDNA control region to assess the population structure of the flatfish Pleuronectes platessa (plaice), to compare these data with a previous study based on microsatellite loci, and to test for possible sex-biased dispersal. From 461 individuals, 163 haplotypes were identified across 11 locations. Diversity was higher with mtDNA (h =0.776 to 0.981; π = 0.0178 to 0.0298) as compared to microsatellite loci using the same samples (He = 0.721 to 0.77). Genetic diversity was lower in samples from Iceland and Faroe, as compared to the continental shelf samples. Although both classes of markers revealed a relatively strong differentiation between shelf and off-shelf populations (θ = 0.1015 and θ = 0.0351, respectively), only the mtDNA data was able to detect differentiation within the continental shelf, i.e., a North Sea-Irish Sea group which was weakly distinguishable from Norway (θ = 0.0046), the Baltic (θ = 0.0136) and the Bay of Biscay (θ = 0.0162). No evidence was obtained for isolation by distance, nor for sex-biased dispersal.This study demonstrates the importance of using more than one class of markers, especially for species like plaice, with large populations, high dispersal and recent colonization histories.