Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:30:10.205Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Genetic characterization of hybrid mussel (Mytilus) populations on Irish coasts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2008

Elizabeth Gosling ,
Sandra Doherty  and
Nicola Howley
Elizabeth Gosling*
Affiliation:
Molecular Ecology Research Group, Department of Life Sciences, Galway–Mayo Institute of Technology, Dublin Road, Galway, Ireland
Sandra Doherty
Affiliation:
Molecular Ecology Research Group, Department of Life Sciences, Galway–Mayo Institute of Technology, Dublin Road, Galway, Ireland
Nicola Howley
Affiliation:
Molecular Ecology Research Group, Department of Life Sciences, Galway–Mayo Institute of Technology, Dublin Road, Galway, Ireland
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Elizabeth Gosling Molecular Ecology Research Group Department of Life SciencesGalway–Mayo Institute of TechnologyDublin Road GalwayIreland email: elizabeth.gosling@gmit.ie
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The blue mussel, Mytilus edulis, and the Mediterranean mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis, occur widely over much of northern Europe, and wherever they are sympatric they hybridize. The hybrid zone is large, ranging from western France to the north of Scotland, and is spatially complex, containing a mixture of pure, hybrid and introgressed individuals. Results from an Irish study in 1981, using partially diagnostic allozyme markers, indicated that mussels on the Irish Sea coast were solely M. edulis, but on Atlantic wave-exposed shores, and to a much lesser extent on wave-protected shores, mussels comprised an interbreeding mixture of M. edulis and M. galloprovincialis. In this study mussels were analysed from 20 locations on Irish coasts, using the Me15/16 nuclear DNA marker. The results showed a high frequency of M. galloprovincialis (0.378 ± 0.198) and hybrid (0.429 ± 0.175) genotypes, and correspondingly low frequencies of the M. edulis genotype (0.194 ± 0.107) at both exposed and sheltered locations on Atlantic coasts, indicating no apparent advantage for the M. edulis genotype at wave-protected sites. Mytilus galloprovincialis was virtually absent from the Irish Sea. Mussels in this area may be a self-recruiting population of M. edulis due to thermal front development at the northern and southern entrances to the Irish Sea in late spring, thereby preventing an influx of spring-spawned Mytilus larvae. The apparent change in the genetic composition of mussels on Atlantic coasts since the early 1980s could be related to climate change, or to aquaculture practice in Ireland whereby mussels from exposed shores are used to seed ropes in wave-protected bays and estuaries.

Keywords

Mytilus edulisMytilus galloprovincialisMe15/16 DNA markerhybrid zonehybridizationgeographical variation
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 88 , Issue 2 , March 2008 , pp. 341 - 346
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Benjamini, Y. and Yekutieli, D. (2001) The control of the false discovery rate in multiple testing under dependency. Annals of Statistics 29, 1165–1188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bierne, N., David, P., Langlade, A. and Bonhomme, F. (2002) Can habitat specialisation maintain a mosaic hybrid zone in marine bivalves? Marine Ecology Progress Series 245, 157–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bierne, N., Borsa, P., Daguin, C., Jollivet, D., Viard, F., Bonhomme, F. and David, P. (2003a) Introgression patterns in the mosaic hybrid zone between Mytilus edulis and M. galloprovincialis. Molecular Ecology 12, 447–461.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bierne, N., Bonhomme, F. and David, P. (2003b) Habitat preference and the marine-speciation paradox. Proceedings of the Royal Society London, Series B 270, 1399–1406.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, J., Carrillo, L., Fernand, L., Horsburgh, K.L., Hill, A.E., Young, E.F. and Medler, K.J. (2003) Observations of the physical structure and seasonal jet-like circulation of the Celtic Sea and St George's Channel of the Irish Sea. Continental Shelf Research 23, 533–561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coghlan, B. and Gosling, E.M. (2007) Genetic structure of hybrid mussel populations in the west of Ireland: two hypotheses revisited. Marine Biology 150, 841–853.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duran, S., Palacin, C., Becerro, M.A., Turon, X. and Giribet, G. (2004) Genetic diversity and population structure of the commercially harvested sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus (Echinodermata, Echinoidea). Molecular Ecology 13, 3317–3328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gardner, J.P.A. and Skibinski, D.O.F. (1988) Historical and size-dependent genetic variation in hybrid mussel populations. Heredity 61, 93–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gosling, E.M. (1992a) Systematics and geographic distribution of Mytilus. In Gosling, E.M. (ed.) The mussel Mytilus: ecology, physiology, genetics and culture. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers, pp. 1–20.Google Scholar
Gosling, E.M. (1992b) Genetics. In Gosling, E.M. (ed.) The mussel Mytilus: ecology, physiology, genetics and culture. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers, pp. 309–382.Google Scholar
Gosling, E.M. and Wilkins, N.P. (1981) Ecological genetics of the mussels Mytilus edulis and M. galloprovincialis on Irish coasts. Marine Ecology Progress Series 4, 221–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gosling, E.M. and McGrath, D. (1990) Genetic variability in exposed shore mussels, Mytilus spp, along an environmental gradient. Marine Biology 104, 413–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilbish, T.J., Timmons, J., Agrawal, V., Schneider, K.R. and Gilg, M.R. (2003) Estuarine habitats protect hybrid mussels from selection. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 292, 177–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holligan, P.M. (1981) Biological implications of fronts on the European Northwest Continental Shelf. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London, Series A 302, 547–562.Google Scholar
Inoue, K., Waite, J.H., Matsuoka, M., Oda, S. and Harayama, S. (1995) Interspecific variations in adhesive protein sequences of Mytilus edulis, M. galloprovincialis and M. trossulus. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole 189, 370–375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, P.D., Osborn, T.J. and Briffa, K.R. (2001) The evolution of climate over the last millennium. Science 292, 662–667.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McDonald, J.H., Seed, R. and Koehn, R.K. (1991) Allozymes and morphometric characters of three species of Mytilus in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Marine Biology 111, 323–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munk, P., Larsson, P.O., Danielsen, D.S. and Moksness, E. (1999) Variability in frontal zone formation and distribution of gadoid fish larvae at the shelf break in the north-eastern North Sea. Marine Ecology Progress Series 177, 221–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narum, S.R. (2006) Beyond Bonferroni: less conservative analyses for conservation genetics. Conservation Genetics 7, 783–787.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quesada, H., Zapata, C. and Alvarez, G. (1995) A multilocus allozyme discontinuity in the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis: the interaction of ecological and life-history factors. Marine Ecology Progress Series 116, 99–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawson, P.D., Joyner, K.L., Meetze, K. and Hilbish, T.J. (1996) Evidence for intragenic recombination within a novel genetic marker that distinguishes mussels in the Mytilus edulis species complex. Heredity 77, 599–607.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raymond, M. and Rousset, F. (1995) GENEPOP Version 1.2.: population genetics software for exact tests and ecumenicism. Journal of Heredity 86, 248–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, W.R. (1989) Analysing tables of statistical tests. Evolution 43, 223–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seed, R. (1974) Morphological variations in Mytilus from the Irish coasts in relation to the occurrence and distribution of Mytilus galloprovincialis (Lmk). Cahiers de Biologie Marine 15, 1–25.Google Scholar
Skibinski, D.O.F., Beardmore, J.A. and Cross, T.F. (1983) Aspects of the population genetics of Mytilus (Mytilidae; Mollusca) in the British Isles. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 19, 137–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xing, J. and Davies, A.M. (2001) A three-dimensional baroclinic model of the Irish Sea: formation of the thermal fronts and associated circulation. Journal of Physical Oceanography 31, 94–114.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar