A striking example of the founder effect in the mollusc Littorina saxatilis |
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Authors: | A. J. KNIGHT,R. N. HUGHES&dagger ,R. D. WARD |
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Affiliation: | *Environmental Biology Unit, Department of Human Sciences, Loughborough University of Technology, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU;†School of Animal Biology, University College of North Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW |
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Abstract: | Two South African populations of Littorina saxatilis were examined by starch-gel electrophoresis at 16 enzyme loci and compared with 13 populations of North Atlantic saxatilis from both American and European coasts, and with six British populations of the closely related species Littorina arcana. The South African animals showed a severely reduced heterozygosity (– 0.052) compared with Atlantic populations of saxatilis ( = 0.181), and the mean genetic distance between the two areas was high ( = 0.203) compared with distances within the North Atlantic saxatilis populations (D = 0.034). In fact, the saxatilis from South Africa were genetically more distant from the North Atlantic samples of L. saxatilis than were the arcana from British shores. The reduced genetic heterozygosity and genetic divergence of the South African populations is attributed to founder effects following a postulated recent introduction by man. |
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Keywords: | Littorina saxatilis Littorina arcana founder effect allozymes polymorphism genetic distance |
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