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Low genetic variability in a widely distributed and abundant clupeid species, Sardinella aurita . New empirical results and interpretations
Author(s) -
Chikhi L.,
Bonhomme F.,
Agnèse J.F.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of fish biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1095-8649
pISSN - 0022-1112
DOI - 10.1111/j.1095-8649.1998.tb00588.x
Subject(s) - biology , sardinella , population , evolutionary biology , zoology , ecology , diversity (politics) , genetic diversity , fishery , fish <actinopterygii> , demography , sociology , sardine , anthropology
Considering the wide geographic distribution and the catches of Sardinella aurita , the observed allozyme diversity (H=0·011) is strikingly small. Potential explanations for this low gene diversity, which include restrictions on effective population size owing to variance in reproductive success, demographic instability, historical bottlenecks in population size, selection, and technical artifacts are examined and quantified. This quantification, though rough, shows that no single factor can account for the lack of diversity. However, demographic instability of S. aurita , especially if this instability has persisted over evolutionary time scales, together with much greater than Poisson variance in individual reproductive success, could account reasonably for the results. Pleistocene reduction of population size seems also a necessary co‐factor. Technical artifacts, mostly scoring difficulties linked to liver autolysis, are considered also and analysed in different clupeid species.