Anthropogenic hybridization between endangered migratory and commercially harvested stationary whitefish taxa (Coregonus spp.).

ABSTRACT: Natural hybridization plays a key role in the process of speciation. However, anthropogenic (human induced) hybridization of historically isolated taxa raises conservation issues. Due to weak barriers to gene flow and the presence of endangered taxa, the whitefish species complex is an excellent study system to investigate the consequences of hybridization in conservation. We focused on three naturally reproductively isolated whitefish taxa in Germany: the endangered, anadromous North Sea houting (NSH) and Baltic houting (BH), which were reintroduced after local extinction, and the commercially stocked European whitefish (EW). To evaluate the genetic integrity of each taxon, source and reintroduced populations of NSH and BH, and EW populations were characterized based on two mitochondrial

SUBMITTER: Dierking J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4231596 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature