Effects of Genotypes at the Unspecific Esterase (Est) and Leucine Aminopeptidase (Lap) Loci on the Temporal Dynamics of Morphological Variation in the Black Sea Mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis Lam.

In the Black Sea mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis Lam., the dependence of variation in 21 morphological characters of the shell on the genotype at the polymorphic loci encoding unspecific esterases and leucine aminopeptidase was estimated by means of ANOVA in 12 samples differing in age and belonging to different generations. The genotype at these loci was found to have no constant influence on the dynamics of variation in any morphological character. The effect of the parameters of polymorphism was ambiguous: a factor having a significant effect on a certain character in one sample might have no such effect (or produce an effect on a different character) in another sample. A directional change in the significant effect of genotypes during a certain period of generation's lifetime was revealed. The dependence of the effect of polymorphism at the studied loci on ecological conditions is discussed.