Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene sequences support an Asian origin for the Portuguese oyster Crassostrea angulata

• Published in: Marine Biology
• Main Authors: Wilbur, A. E., Hilbish, T. J., Foighil, D. A., Gaffney, Patrick M.
• Other Authors: Museum of Zoology and Department of Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1079, USA, US, Delle W. Baruch Institute, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA, US, College of Marine Studies, University of Delaware, Lewes, Delaware 19958, USA, US, Ann Arbor
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer-Verlag; Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1998
• Subjects: Legacy; Natural Resources and Environment; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Science; Pacific; Lamarck; Pacific oyster
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/42028; https://doi.org/10.1007/s002270050341

The Portuguese oyster Crassostrea angulata (Lamarck, 1819) was long assumed to be native to the northeastern Atlantic, however, a number of lines of evidence now indicate that it is a close relative, or identical, to the Asian Pacific oyster C. gigas (Thunberg, 1793). Three hypotheses have been proposed to explain how this strikingly disjunct geographic distribution may have come about: ancient vicariance events, recent anthropogenic introduction to Asia and recent anthropogenic introduction to Europe. We have performed a molecular phylogenetic analysis of C. angulata based on mitochondrial DNA sequence data for a 579-nucleotide fragment of cytochrome oxidase I. Our results show that Portuguese oyster haplotypes cluster robustly within a clade of Asian congeners and are closely related, but not identical, to C. gigas from Japan. The mitochondrial data are the first to show that Portuguese oysters are genetically distinct from geographically representative samples of Japanese Pacific oysters. Our phylogenetic analyses are consistent with a recent introduction of C. angulata to Europe either from a non-Japanese Asian source population or from a subsequently displaced Japanese source population. Genetic characterization of Pacific oysters throughout their Asian range is necessary to fully reveal the phylogenetic relationships among Portuguese and Pacific oysters. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/42028/1/227-131-3-497_81310497.pdf