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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology
Spatial and temporal variation in population genetic structure of wild Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) across Africa
BMC Genetics, Volume 12, Article 102, Year 2011
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Description
Background: Reconstructing the evolutionary history of a species is challenging. It often depends not only on the past biogeographic and climatic events but also the contemporary and ecological factors, such as current connectivity and habitat heterogeneity. In fact, these factors might interact with each other and shape the current species distribution. However, to what extent the current population genetic structure reflects the past and the contemporary factors is largely unknown. Here we investigated spatio-temporal genetic structures of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) populations, across their natural distribution in Africa. While its large biogeographic distribution can cause genetic differentiation at the paleo-biogeographic scales, its restricted dispersal capacity might induce a strong genetic structure at micro-geographic scales.Results: Using nine microsatellite loci and 350 samples from ten natural populations, we found the highest genetic differentiation among the three ichthyofaunal provinces and regions (Ethiopian, Nilotic and Sudano-Sahelian) (RST = 0.38 - 0.69). This result suggests the predominant effect of paleo-geographic events at macro-geographic scale. In addition, intermediate divergences were found between rivers and lakes within the regions, presumably reflecting relatively recent interruptions of gene flow between hydrographic basins (RST = 0.24 - 0.32). The lowest differentiations were observed among connected populations within a basin (RST = 0.015 in the Volta basin). Comparison of temporal sample series revealed subtle changes in the gene pools in a few generations (F = 0 - 0.053). The estimated effective population sizes were 23 - 143 and the estimated migration rate was moderate (m ~ 0.094 - 0.097) in the Volta populations.Conclusions: This study revealed clear hierarchical patterns of the population genetic structuring of O. niloticus in Africa. The effects of paleo-geographic and climatic events were predominant at macro-geographic scale, and the significant effect of geographic connectivity was detected at micro-geographic scale. The estimated effective population size, the moderate level of dispersal and the rapid temporal change in genetic composition might reflect a potential effect of life history strategy on population dynamics. This hypothesis deserves further investigation. The dynamic pattern revealed at micro-geographic and temporal scales appears important from a genetic resource management as well as from a biodiversity conservation point of view. © 2011 Bezault et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Available Materials
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3260159/bin/1471-2156-12-102-S1.DOC
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3260159/bin/1471-2156-12-102-S2.DOC
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3260159/bin/1471-2156-12-102-S3.DOC
Authors & Co-Authors
Bezault, Étienne
France, Paris
Cirad
France, Jouy-en-josas
Génétique Animale et Biologie Intégrative
Switzerland, Bern
University of Bern
Switzerland, Dubendorf
Eawag - Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
Balaresque, Patricia L.
United Kingdom, Leicester
University of Leicester
France, Toulouse
Centre d’ Anthropobiologie et de Génomique de Toulouse
Toguyéni, Aboubacar
Burkina Faso, Bobo-dioulasso
Université Nazi Boni
Fermon, Yves
Unknown Affiliation
Araki, Hitoshi
Switzerland, Dubendorf
Eawag - Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
Baroiller, Jean François
France, Paris
Cirad
Rognon, Xavier
France, Jouy-en-josas
Génétique Animale et Biologie Intégrative
Statistics
Citations: 52
Authors: 7
Affiliations: 7
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1186/1471-2156-12-102
e-ISSN:
14712156
Research Areas
Environmental
Genetics And Genomics
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study