Genetic structure of marine and lake forms of Pacific herring Clupea pallasii

• Published in: PeerJ
• Main Authors: Svetlana Yu. Orlova, Sergey Rastorguev, Tatyana Bagno, Denis Kurnosov, Artem Nedoluzhko
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PeerJ Inc. 2021
• Subjects: Pacific herring; Clupea pallasii; Speciation; Subspecies; Ecological form; RAD sequencing; Medicine; R; Biology (General); QH301-705.5; Kara Sea; Pacific
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12444; https://doaj.org/article/0c3ffe1ad6944c75baf7153dd0098d26

The Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) is one of the most important species in the commercial fisheries distributed in the North Pacific Ocean and the northeastern European seas. This teleost has marine and lake ecological forms a long its distribution in the Holarctic. However, the level of genetic differentiation between these two forms is not well known. In the present study, we used ddRAD-sequencing to genotype 54 specimens from twelve wild Pacific herring populations from the Kara Sea and the Russian part of the northwestern Pacific Ocean for unveiling the genetic structure of Pacific herring. We found that the Kara Sea population is significantly distinct from Pacific Ocean populations. It was demonstrated that lake populations of Pacific herring differ from one another as well as from marine specimens. Our results show that fresh and brackish water Pacific herring, which inhabit lakes, can be distinguished as a separate lake ecological form. Moreover, we demonstrate that each observed lake Pacific herring population has its own and unique genetic legacy.