A Long-Standing Hybrid Population Between Pacific and Atlantic Herring in a Subarctic Fjord of Norway.

ABSTRACT: Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) and Pacific herring (C. pallasii) are sister species that split from a common ancestor about 2 million years ago. Balsfjord, a subarctic fjord in Northern Norway, harbors an outpost population of Pacific herring within the range of the Atlantic herring. We used whole genome sequencing to show that gene flow from Atlantic herring into the Balsfjord population has generated a stable hybrid population that has persisted for thousands of generations. The Atlantic herring ancestry in Balsfjord was estimated in the range 25-26%. The old age and large proportion of introgressed regions suggest there are no obvious genetic incompatibilities between species. Introgressed regions were widespread in the genome and large, with some in excess of 1 Mb, and they were ov

SUBMITTER: Pettersson ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10182735 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature