Pacific and Atlantic Lepeophtheirus salmonis (Kroyer, 1838) are allopatric subspecies: Lepeophtheirus salmonis salmonis and L. salmonis oncorhynchi subspecies novo.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The salmon louse Lepeophtheirus salmonis is a parasitic copepod that infects salmonids in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Although considered as a single species, morphological and biological differences have been reported between lice from the two oceans. Likewise, studies based on nucleotide sequencing have demonstrated that sequence differences between Atlantic and Pacific L. salmonis are highly significant, albeit smaller than the divergence observed between congeneric copepod species.

Results

We demonstrated reproductive compatibility between L. salmonis from the two oceans and successfully established F2 hybrid strains using separate maternal lines from both the Pacific and Atlantic. The infection success for the F2 hybrid strains were similar to results ty

SUBMITTER: Skern-Mauritzen R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4007600 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature