Reem Al-Haidose
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture, Qatar
Title: The evolution of reproductive moes in the Carassius auratus complex
Biography
Biography: Reem Al-Haidose
Abstract
Cyprinid fish from the Carassius auratus complex are native to Asia but have been introduced to non-native habitats throughout the world. The C. auratus complex includes sexually reproducing, diploid as well as triploid and polyploidy individuals which predominately reproduce asexually through gynogenesis. Due to this variation in reproductive mode the C. auratus complex is an ideal system for studying evolution of unisexual reproduction. The evolutionary relationship between the different reproductive modes is however poorly understood. Author has used a comprehensive phylogeographic analysis based on mitochondrial DNA (cyt b) and including 10 native populations and 35 invasive populations from Europe and Australia to identify major phylogenetic lineages examine different models of colonisation and spread within the invasive range. Furthermore, 199 individuals were genotyped at 6 microsatellite loci to determine their level of ploidy and reproductive mode. A total of 158 cyt b haplotypes from seven highly divergent phylogenetic lineages were identified. Author’s analysis showed that Southern China is the centre diversity and that there is a geographic overlap between lineages indicating recent secondary contact. Invasive population originate predominately from two phylogenetic lineages from the northern range of the native distribution. The microsatellite results showed that most the native populations consisted of a mixture of diploids and triploids but were dominated by triploid individuals. In contrast invasive populations showed a considerable variety in reproductive mode ranging from purely diploid to purely triploid and mixed populations. Interestingly, within the invasive range C. auratus, diploids are dominant in older Eastern European populations whereas triploid forms are dominant in more recently established Central European populations. This can be interpreted that a transition from the diploid form to triploid form which occurred after invasive population became established.