Population Genetic Structure is Unrelated to Shell Shape, Thickness and Organic Content in European Populations of the Soft‐Shell Clam Mya Arenaria
De Noia, Michele; Telesca, Luca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9060-2261; Vendrami, David L.J.; Gokalp, Grégory; Harper, Elizabeth M.; Hoffman, Joseph I..
2020
Population Genetic Structure is Unrelated to Shell Shape, Thickness and Organic Content in European Populations of the Soft‐Shell Clam Mya Arenaria.
Genes, 11 (3), 298.
https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11030298
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Text (Open Access)
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). genes-11-00298.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Download (2MB) | Preview |
Abstract/Summary
The soft-shell clam Mya arenaria is one of the most ancient invaders of European coasts and is present in many coastal ecosystems, yet little is known about its genetic structure in Europe. We collected 266 samples spanning a latitudinal cline from the Mediterranean to the North Sea and genotyped them at 12 microsatellite loci. In parallel, geometric morphometric analysis of shell outlines was used to test for associations between shell shape, latitude and genotype, and for a selection of shells we measured the thickness and organic content of the granular prismatic (PR), the crossed-lamellar (CL) and the complex crossed-lamellar (CCL) layers. Strong population structure was detected, with Bayesian cluster analysis identifying four groups located in the Mediterranean, Celtic Sea, along the continental coast of the North Sea and in Scotland. Multivariate analysis of shell shape uncovered a significant effect of collection site but no associations with any other variables. Shell thickness did not vary significantly with either latitude or genotype, although PR thickness and calcification were positively associated with latitude, while CCL thickness showed a negative association. Our study provides new insights into the population structure of this species and sheds light on factors influencing shell shape, thickness and microstructure.
Item Type: | Publication - Article |
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Digital Object Identifier (DOI): | https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11030298 |
Additional Keywords: | Mya arenaria; soft-shell clam; microsatellite; population genetic structure; phenotypic plasticity; shell morphometrics |
Date made live: | 19 Mar 2020 07:29 +0 (UTC) |
URI: | https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527275 |
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