Abstract
The population structure of Gammarus fossarum Koch was analysed at six enzyme loci in 38 populations from the Danube and Rhine drainage system in the southern part of Germany. The species-restricted distribution to the upper reaches of rivers was reflected in the large genetic differentiation of all populations. The genetic pattern can be explained as a dynamic balance between genetic drift and restricted gene flow. As migration mainly occurs along the rivers, a treelike pattern showing the genetic relationship of the populations corresponded well with the geographical position of the populations in the river system. The overall gene flow was estimated as low, although small rivers have a higher migration rate than large rivers. The watershed between the Rhine and Danube drainage basins affects gene flow at about the same level as the major migration barriers within the Danube drainage basin.
Each sampled population seemed to be panmictic with respect to the variation at single loci. In two-locus analyses, linkage disequilibria were found in several populations at combinations of three of the loci. A probable cause is that the linkage disequilibria are produced through random genetic drift (possibly through bottlenecks) and that the three loci are so closely linked that the recombination rate is too low to establish linkage equilibrium.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Francis Foeckler, Sabine Gießler, Angelika Küppers and Traudl McLaughlin for help in the collection of samples; to Angelika Küppers and Christine Steiger for technical help, to Dr J. Felsenstein for a copy of the program package phylip and to Jürgen Jacobs, Maarten Scheepmaker and an anonymous reviewer for comments on the manuscript. HRS was supported by the German Science Foundation (DFG), grant no. Si 361/1-1 and by a grant from the Danish Natural Science Research Council.
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Siegismund, H., Müller, J. Genetic structure of Gammarus fossarum populations. Heredity 66, 419–436 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1991.52
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1991.52
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