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Genetics of Scottish populations of the native oyster, Ostrea edulis: gene flow, human intervention and conservation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2007

Andy Beaumont ,
Manuela Truebano Garcia ,
Stephan Hönig  and
Paula Low
Andy Beaumont
Affiliation:
School of Ocean Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, Menai Bridge, Gwynedd, LL59 5AB, UK
Manuela Truebano Garcia
Affiliation:
School of Ocean Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, Menai Bridge, Gwynedd, LL59 5AB, UK
Stephan Hönig
Affiliation:
School of Ocean Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, Menai Bridge, Gwynedd, LL59 5AB, UK
Paula Low
Affiliation:
University Marine Biological Station Milport, Isle of Cumbrae Scotland, KA28 0EF, UK
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Abstract

The European, native or flat oyster, Ostrea edulis, has been the subject of human-mediated translocation and aquaculture in Europe for centuries and may have diluted or masked natural population genetic structure. Samples of O. edulis from 10 sites in Scotland and The Netherlands, Brittany and Norway were collected and genotyped at up to six microsatellite loci. Numbers of alleles and heterozygosity per locus were high in all populations and were consistent with previous microsatellite studies. There is no evidence that extensive traditional oyster aquaculture has led to loss of allelelic diversity. Deficiencies of heterozygotes against Hardy-Weinberg predictions were common and were probably mainly due to the presence of null alleles. Overall, population differentiation (F st = 0.05) was estimated to be higher than previous studies and could be resolved into four main genetic groups (1) Norway, (2) The Netherlands and Brittany, (3) Scotland apart from (4) Skye. The genetic distinctness of Norway oysters agrees with previous findings. The distinctiveness of the Skye population could be partly due to an artefact of small sample sizes and partly due to the founder effect of importation of Brittany oysters in the 1950s. Further studies are required to ascertain whether the Skye population may be deserving of special conservation status. The results suggest that human aquaculture activities over recent centuries have probably diluted any original local genetic differentiation within Scotland, but that potentially important genetic differentiation still exists at the wider scale across Europe

Keywords

GeneticsMicrosatellitesConservationOystersOstrea edulisScotland
Type
Research Article
Information
Aquatic Living Resources , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , October 2006 , pp. 389 - 402
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, IFREMER, IRD, 2007

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