Data from: Population genetics of the American eel (Anguilla rostrata): FST = 0 and NAO effects on demographic fluctuations of a panmictic species ...

• Main Authors: Côté, Caroline L., Castonguay, Martin, Gagnaire, Pierre-Alexandre, Bourret, Vincent, Verreault, Guy, Bernatchez, Louis
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2012
• Subjects: Anguilla rostrata; Wildlife Management; Canada; Lawrence River; Newfoundland; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.39jb0; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.39jb0

We performed population genetic analyses on the American eel (Anguilla rostrata) with three main objectives. First, we conducted the most comprehensive analysis of neutral genetic population structure to date in order to revisit the null hypothesis of panmixia in this species. Second, we used this data to provide the first estimates of contemporary effective population size (Ne) and to document temporal variation in effective number of breeders (Nb) in American eel. Third, we tested for statistical associations between temporal variation in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index, the effective number of breeders and two indices of recruit abundance. A total of 2142 eels from 32 sampling locations were genotyped with 18 microsatellite loci. All measures of differentiation were essentially zero, and no evidence for significant spatial or temporal genetic differentiation was found. The panmixia hypothesis should thus be accepted for this species. Nb estimates varied by a factor of 23 among 12 cohorts, from ... : genotype_age_location_Dryad2012American glass eels recruitment begins in Florida around December and progresses northward to Newfoundland–Labrador until June/July (Helfman et al. 1987). The first waves of glass eels at each location were sampled in 2008 following this latitudinal trend at 17 sites evenly distributed along eastern North America up to the St. Lawrence estuary. For each location, 50 individuals were measured and preserved in 95% ethanol. Yellow eels were also collected between May and September 2008 at 15 locations ranging from the upper St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic coast of Canada. The emphasis on yellow eel sampling in this region was motivated by the occurrence of strikingly different recruitment trends reported between Atlantic Canada versus the upper St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario (Cairns et al. 2008). Sample size varied from 69 to 100 yellow eels per location. Fin clips were preserved in 95% ethanol for DNA extraction and genotyping, and heads were kept for otolith extraction. ...