Genetic structure of juvenile plaice Pleuronectes platessa on nursery grounds within the Irish Sea
Watts, P.C.; Nash, R.D.M.; Kemp, S.J. (2004). Genetic structure of juvenile plaice Pleuronectes platessa on nursery grounds within the Irish Sea. J. Sea Res. 51(3-4): 191-197. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seares.2003.09.003
In: Journal of Sea Research. Elsevier/Netherlands Institute for Sea Research: Amsterdam; Den Burg. ISSN 1385-1101; e-ISSN 1873-1414
Also appears in:
Geffen, A.J.; Nash, R.D.M.; van der Veer, H.W. (Ed.) (2004). Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on Flatfish Ecology, Part II. Port Erin, Isle of Man, 3-7 November 2002. Journal of Sea Research, 51(3-4). Elsevier: Amsterdam. 167-338 pp., more
As a preliminary investigation into the genetic structure of Irish Sea plaice we genotyped samples of juvenile plaice from six inshore areas within the Irish Sea across eight microsatellite loci and compared them with fish from two sites from the Dutch Wadden Sea (North Sea stocks). Genetic variability in all samples was generally low for that typically observed at microsatellite loci. The number of alleles per locus varied between two and nine (average 5.5) and the observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.080 up to a maximum of 0.909 (average 0.382). Few significant heterozygote deficits were observed, even when the data set was pooled. The majority (98%) of genetic variation present was within, rather than between, populations. None of the pairwise comparisons of population differentiation (FST) were significant (P>0.05) and a Bayesian analysis of population structure provided no evidence for a partitioning of the samples. Since juveniles arriving at nursery grounds in the Irish Sea are not distinct, it is likely that adult plaice form a single stock (perhaps with some weak differentiation). However, if plaice eggs and larvae do not disperse as predicted by a particle tracking model, then it is possible that the juveniles represent a mixture of several distinct stocks. Further work is therefore required to determine whether the phenotypic variation observed between female plaice from the eastern and western Irish Sea is the product of reproductive isolation or of the environment.
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