Lack of correspondence between genetic and morphologic variability patterns in atlantic herring (clupea harengus)

SUMMARY The Atlantic herring (_Clupea harengus_) stock complex is confusing from the perspectives of both evolutionary biology and systematics. There are numerous ecologically and

morphologically divergent stocks classified as species, subspecies, races, tribes, etc. with an unknown degree of genetic differentiation and reproductive isolation between them. The genetic

population structure of herring from the Scandinavian waters was analysed electrophoretically. The pattern for distribution of genetic variation was compared to that of the morphological

characters most frequently used for stock classification, i.e., the number of vertebrae and keeled scales. Fish were collected from 17 locations distributed from the northern Gulf of Bothnia

to the north-east Atlantic off the west coast of Norway. The genetic analysis was based on 17 electrophoretic loci, 13 of which were variable. There are statistically significant allele

frequency heterogeneities, but there is a conspicuously small amount of genetic differentiation, even between stocks classified as representing different subspecies. More than 99 per cent of

the total gene diversity was found within populations, and genetic distances are typically of the order of 0·001. The genotypic distribution of the total material is very similar to the one

expected if all the samples had been drawn from a single panmictic population. There appears to be no association between the variation of morphological characters and that at

electrophoretic loci, and this is true for the variation between as well as within samples. Data suggest that stocks either diverged rather recently or that the amount of gene flow between

groups of fish classified as stocks has been large enough to prevent substantial differentiation, and that morphologic and ecologic divergence may to a large extent be environmentally

induced. SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS EVIDENCE OF UNIDIRECTIONAL GENE FLOW IN A FRAGMENTED POPULATION OF _SALMO TRUTTA_ L. Article Open access 03 December 2021 SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL

STABILITY IN THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF A MARINE CRAB DESPITE A BIOGEOGRAPHIC BREAK Article Open access 20 August 2022 TEMPORAL ANALYSIS SHOWS RELAXED GENETIC EROSION FOLLOWING IMPROVED

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Scholar  Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION Author notes * Leif Andersson Present address: Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-750

07, Uppsala, Sweden AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Genetics, University of Stockholm, Stockholm, S-106 91, Sweden Nils Ryman, Ulf Lagercrantz & Leif Andersson * Center for

Demographic and Population Genetics, Health Science Center at Houston, The University of Texas, PO Box 20334, Houston, 77025, Texas, USA Ranajit Chakraborty * Institute of Marine Research,

Lysekil, S-453 00, Sweden Rutger Rosenberg Authors * Nils Ryman View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Ulf Lagercrantz View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Leif Andersson View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Ranajit

Chakraborty View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Rutger Rosenberg View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed 

Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Ryman, N., Lagercrantz, U., Andersson, L. _et al._ Lack of correspondence between genetic

and morphologic variability patterns in Atlantic herring (_Clupea harengus_). _Heredity_ 53, 687–704 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1984.127 Download citation * Received: 15 May 1984 *

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