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Genetic evidence against panmixia in the European eel

Nature volume 409, pages 1037–1040 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

The panmixia hypothesis—that all European eel (Anguilla anguilla) migrate to the Sargasso Sea for reproduction and comprise a single, randomly mating population—is widely accepted1,2. If true, then this peculiar life history strategy would directly impact the population genetics of this species, and eels from European and north African rivers should belong to the same breeding population through the random dispersal of larvae. To date, the panmixia hypothesis has remained unchallenged: genetic studies realized on eel's mitochondrial DNA failed to detect any genetic structure3,4,5; and a similar lack of structure was found using allozymes6,7, with the exception of clinal variation imposed by selection8,9. Here we have used highly polymorphic genetic markers that provide better resolution10,11 to investigate genetic structure in European eel. Analysis of seven microsatellite loci among 13 samples from the north Atlantic, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea basins reveals that there is global genetic differentiation12. Moreover, pairwise Cavalli-Sforza and Edwards'13 chord distances correlate significantly with coastal geographical distance. This pattern of genetic structure implies non-random mating and restricted gene flow among eels from different sampled locations, which therefore refute the hypothesis of panmixia. Consequently, the reproductive biology of European eel must be reconsidered14,15.

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Figure 1: Sampling locations.
Figure 2: Genetic distance (DCE), based on seven microsatellite loci, versus coastal geographical distances for all possible pairwise combinations of 13 A. anguilla samples.
Figure 3: Neighbour-joining phenogram depicting genetic distance relationships based on Cavalli-Sforza and Edward's chord distances among 13 European eel samples.

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Acknowledgements

We are extremely grateful to the following individuals and organizations for providing the samples used in this study: P. Prouzet, G. Adam, M.-N. de Casamajor, S. L. Jónsdóttir, E. Feunteun, P. Lambert, P. Dumont, C. Briand, R. Leconte, A. Crivelli, C. Gazeau, M.-F. Gazerque, D. Fatin, H. Wickström, A. Yahyaoui, C. Antunes, E. Ciccotti, A. Vøllestad, B. Knights, H. Wilkens and the CEMAGREF. We would also like to thank J. Dodson, M. Castonguay, S. Rogers and J. McNeil for helpful comments on an earlier versions of the manuscript. This work is a contribution to the programme of GIROQ.

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  1. Département de Biologie, GIROQ, Université Laval, Ste-Foy, Québec, G1K7P4, Canada

    Thierry Wirth & Louis Bernatchez

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Correspondence to Thierry Wirth.

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Wirth, T., Bernatchez, L. Genetic evidence against panmixia in the European eel. Nature 409, 1037–1040 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35059079

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