Genetic diversity of the killifish Aphanius fasciatus paralleling the environmental changes of Tarquinia salterns habit
Author(s)
Angeletti, Dario
Cimmaruta, Roberta
Nascetti, Giuseppe
Date Issued
2010
Type
Article
Abstract
The habitat in the Natural Reserve of the Tarquinia
salterns, located on the Tyrrhenian coast of central
Italy, has undergone dramatic alterations over the last
10 years. After salt production was terminated in 1997 the
site was abandoned until 2002, with consequent degradation
of habitat quality and stiffening of the environmental
conditions. From 2003 to 2006 ecological rehabilitation of
the site was carried out, restoring water circulation to its
previous equilibrium. The genetic variation in the killifish
Aphanius fasciatus inhabiting the salterns was monitored
using allozymes from 1998. The results showed that the
genetic variability of the killifish strongly reduced through
time: a high number of rare alleles were lost and both
heterozygosity and allele richness were significantly
decreased. The most recent samples, taken after the ecological
restoration, showed that to date the genetic erosion
of A. fasciatus gene pool has slowed down, since no significant
differences have been detected for any genetic
variability parameter. Concerning the mechanisms leading
to the impoverishment of the genetic variability, the strong
loss of rare alleles suggests a role of genetic drift, which
accords with the fluctuation of the effective population size
recorded over the period of study and with the low gene
flow typical of this species. The low levels of gene flow
reported for this species imply that once lost, the genetic
variability can rarely be restored through immigration from
highly variable populations.
Additional information
L'articolo รจ disponibile sul sito dell'editore http://www.springerlink.com
Citation
Angeletti, D., Cimmaruta, R., Nascetti, G. 2010. Genetic diversity of the killifish Aphanius fasciatus paralleling the environmental changes of Tarquinia salterns habit. "Genetica" 138 (9-10): 1011-1021
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