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Hybrid zones among mussel species have been extensively studied in the northern hemisphere. In South America, it has only recently become possible to study the natural hybrid zones, due to the clarification of the taxonomy of native mussels of the Mytilus genus. Analysing 54 SNP markers, we show the genetic species composition and admixture in the hybrid zone between M. chilensis and M. platensis in the southern end of South America. Bayesian, non‐Bayesian clustering and re‐assignment algorithms showed that the natural hybrid zone between M. chilensis and M. platensis in the Strait of Magellan, Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands shows clinal architecture. The hybrid zone can be divided into three different areas: the first one is on the Atlantic coast where only pure M. platensis and hybrid were found. In the second one, inside the Strait of Magellan, pure individuals of both species and mussels with variable degrees of hybridisation coexist. In the last area at the Strait in front of Punta Arenas City, fjords on the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, and at the Beagle Channel, only M. chilensis and a low number of hybrids were found. According to the proportion of hybrids, bays with protected conditions away from strong currents would give better conditions for hybridisation. We do not find evidence of any other mussel species such as M. edulis, M. galloprovincialis, M. planulatus or M. trossulus in the zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation to environmental variation caused by global climate change is a significant aspect of fisheries management and ecology. A reduction in ocean salinity is visible in near-shore areas, especially in the Baltic Sea, where it is affecting the Atlantic cod population. Cod is one of the most significant teleost species, with high ecological and economical value worldwide. The population of cod in the Baltic Sea has been traditionally divided into two subpopulations (western and eastern) existing in higher- and lower-salinity waters, respectively. In recent decades, both Baltic cod subpopulations have declined massively. One of the reasons for the poor condition of cod in the Baltic Sea is environmental factors, including salinity. Thus, in this study, an oligonucleotide microarray was applied to explore differences between Baltic cod subpopulations in response to salinity fluctuations. For this purpose, an exposure experiment was conducted consisting of salinity elevation and reduction, and gene expression was measured in gill tissue. We found 400 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in the immune response, metabolism, programmed cell death, cytoskeleton, and extracellular matrix that showed a subpopulation-dependent pattern. These findings indicate that osmoregulation in Baltic cod is a complex process, and that western and eastern Baltic cod subpopulations respond differently to salinity changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries in the Baltic Sea basin have initiated enhancement programs for Baltic migratory sea trout, Salmo trutta L., to compensate for losses stemming from anthropogenic pressure that has resulted in the declining population abundance of this species. Regular stock enhancement has been conducted in Poland since the 1960s. Currently, over one million sea trout smolts are released into Polish rivers annually. In most Baltic countries, including Poland, stock enhancement depends on hatcheries producing material using spawners caught in native rivers. However, increasing difficulty obtaining spawners in recent years in Poland has meant that stock enhancement performed in the Vistula has been done largely with material obtained from broodstocks. Simultaneously, there is a lack of information regarding the proportion of wild and cultured sea trout in this river basin. This paper is a review of methods applied to identify individuals from natural and artificial sea trout spawning in rivers, and it proposes using genetic techniques as an alternative to traditional marking methods. A set of 13 microsatellite loci are proposed that are characterized by high selectivity. Using negative controls while simulating the assignment of parental pairs revealed that the number of loci in the set was highly significant and should not be reduced. This method could be useful in the proposed assessment of the proportions of wild and cultured fish in Polish rivers.

An increase in aquatic animal production can be achieved by extending aquaculture areas geographically, utilizing new species for culture, and using new technologies. Among new technologies useful for the increase of aquaculture production is the application of genetics and genomics. New molecular tools that benefit aquaculture have been developed. There has been a large number of experimental and review papers published concerning molecular markers and the range of their applications, including aquaculture and food product analyses. Analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) has emerged as genotyping technology with wide and significant applications in aquaculture. SNPs can be used for construction of genetic linkage maps, finding quantitative trait loci (QTL) for useful traits like growth, body weight, grilsing, thermal and low oxygen tolerance, resistance to stress and diseases, mapping sex determination loci and identification of progeny in selection and chromosome manipulation experiments, assessment of genomic selectionand marker assisted selection in aquaculture. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) facilitate the finding associations between SNPs and a trait in related or unrelated specimens. However, many traits are complex and can be controlled by number of QTL. Genotyping by genome reduction complexity sequencing emerged as an efficient and applicable technology in genomic selection. Identification of genes, sequences and nucleotides (substitutions) directly influencing phenotypic variations opens the possibility of marker-assisted selection for desirable characters in culture. SNP and QTL associations can be enhanced using genome editing technology. Examples of successful applications of SNPs in aquaculture of fish, crustacean and mollusk species, representing most geographic areas, and ecological risks assessment are reviewed.

The doubly uniparental inheritance system allows for the use of two independent mitochondrial genomes for population history investigations. Under this system, two lineages of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) exist and males are typically heteroplasmic, having the additional, usually divergent, mitochondrial genome inherited from their male parent. This additional mtDNA typically evolves faster, potentially allowing for insight into more recent events in population history. Few studies did explore this possibility in marine mussels Mytilus showing its usefulness. Recent observations of the Mytilus trossulus mussels who have retained their native mtDNA in European waters posed the question of their origin. Are they part of a population present, but previously undetected, or is this a potentially human mediated, ongoing spread of an invasive species? To tackle this question, we amplified with species-specific primers and sequenced an approximately 1,200-bp-long fragment spanning COIII and ND2 genes from both mitochondrial genomes of mussels sampled at five locations worldwide, covering the whole M. trossulus range. The overall pattern of polymorphisms is compatible with the entirely postglacial history of the whole species, indicating a very deep bottleneck at last glacial maximum, with possible retention of the whole species in a single refugium, and the effective population size of no more than a few thousands. Both analyses of molecular variance and isolation with migration (IM) models point at the West Atlantic as the source of the European M. trossulus mussels, at least the ones who retained their native mtDNA. The hypothesis that this is an ongoing, human-mediated process was considered. To this end, comparison with the well-known case: the introduction of congeneric mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis, from Mediterranean Sea to Asia was used. This introduction occurred within the last 100 years. The results inferred by the IM model suggest that the timing and structure of transatlantic migration of M. trossulus differs significantly from the M. galloprovincialis case: it is more than 1,000 years old and involves a much larger fraction of the ancestral population. Therefore, most likely, this invasion is not a human-mediated process., Introduction The smooth-shelled blue mussel Mytilus edulis species complex consists of three recognised, closely related and hybridising members: M. edulis, Mytilus galloprovincialis and Mytilus trossulus (McDonald et al. 1991; Gosling [...]

Many bivalve species, including mussels of the genus Mytilus, are unusual in having two mtDNA genomes, one inherited maternally (the F genome) and the other inherited paternally (the M genome). The sequence differences between the genomes are usually great, indicating ancient divergence predating speciation events. However, in Mytilus trossulus from the Baltic, both genomes are similar to the F genome from the closely related M. edulis. This study analyzed the mtDNA control region structure in male and female Baltic M. trossulus mussels. We show that a great diversity of structural rearrangements is present in both sexes. Sperm samples are dominated by recombinant haplotypes with M. edulis M-like control region segments, some having large duplications. By contrast, the rearranged haplotypes that dominate in eggs lack segments from this M genome. The rearrangements can be explained by a combination of tandem duplication, deletion, and intermolecular recombination. An evolutionary pathway leading to the recombinant haplotypes is suggested. The data are also considered in relation to the hypothesis that the M. edulis M-like control region sequence is necessary to confer the paternal role on genomes that are otherwise F-like.

Human-mediated pressures, including bioinvasions, threaten the biotas of every continent. Hybridization and introgression between invasive and native species may result in loss of genetic integrity of native taxa but, in many cases, these events are hard to detect because the invader is impossible to tell apart from the native taxon. The problem of cryptic invasive taxa and its importance for biodiversity protection have been underestimated, because of the limited number of studies of broadly distributed taxa using sensitive nuclear DNA markers. We employed a panel of 51 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers to examine genetic interactions between Australian native smooth-shelled mussels, Mytilus planulatus , and invasive and cryptic Northern Hemisphere M. galloprovincialis along 4400 km of coastline from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean. Overall, 20.8% of mussels from ten sites were native species. The centre of distribution of M. planulatus is in south-eastern Australia, in particular in Tasmania. We suggest that ongoing spatial and temporal monitoring of Tasmanian sites is required to test for the presence of M. galloprovincialis and its possible further spread, and that hatchery production of M. planulatus for farming and reseeding into the wild may help reduce the likelihood of its loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]