Skip to main content
Log in

Levels of connectivity between longnose skate (Dipturus oxyrinchus) in the Mediterranean Sea and the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean

Conservation Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Sequencing of a partial region of the mitochondrial control region has revealed no shared haplotypes between longnose skate (Dipturus oxyrinchus L.) sampled in the north-eastern Atlantic (Norway and Rockall) and those sampled in the Mediterranean (Mallorca). Bayesian estimation of the migration rate suggests little, if any, gene flow occurs between the regions and that the populations separated 20,000 years ago. These conclusions provide a genetic basis for long-standing observations, based on egg capsule and adult size, that longnose skate in the Mediterranean may be genetically isolated from other stocks. This result has important conservation implications for the threatened longnose skate.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

References

  • Chevolot M, Hoarau G, Rijnsdorp AD, Stam WT, Olsen JL (2006) Phylogeography and population structure of thornback rays (Raja clavata L., Rajidae). Mol Ecol 15:3693–3705. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2006.03043.x

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chevolot M, Wolfs PHJ, Palsson J, Rijnsdorp AD, Stam WT, Olsen JL (2007) Population structure and historical demography of the thorny skate (Amblyraja radiata, Rajidae) in the North Atlantic. Mar Biol 151:1275–1286. doi:10.1007/s00227-006-0556-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chow S, Takeyama H (2000) Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA analyses reveal four genetically separated breeding units of the swordfish. J Fish Biol 56:1087–1098

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Clark RS (1922) Rays and skates (Raiae). No. 1 Egg-capsules and young. J Mar Biol Assoc UK 12:577–643

    Google Scholar 

  • Clement M, Posada D, Crandall KA (2000) TCS: a computer program to estimate gene genealogies. Mol Ecol 9:1657–1659. doi:10.1046/j.1365-294x.2000.01020.x

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dulvy NK, Reynolds JD (2002) Predicting extinction vulnerability in skates. Conserv Biol 16:440–450. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.2002.00416.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dulvy NK, Metcalfe JD, Glanville J, Pawson MG, Reynolds JD (2000) Fishery stability, local extinctions, and shifts in community structure in skates. Conserv Biol 14:283–293. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.2000.98540.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Excoffier L, Laval G, Schneider S (2005) Arlequin (version 3.0): an integrated software package for population genetics data analysis. Evol Bioinf Online 1:47–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths AM, Sims DW, Cotterell SP, El Nagar A, Ellis JR, Lynghammar A, McHugh M, Neat FC, Pade NG, Queiroz N, Serra-Pereira B, Rapp T, Wearmouth VJ & Genner MJ (2010) Molecular markers reveal spatially segregated cryptic species in a critically endangered fish, the common skate (Dipturus batis). Proc R Soc Biol Sci B: doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.2111

  • Hall TA (1999) BioEdit: a user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT. Nucleic Acids Symp Ser 41:95–98

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hart MW, Sunday J (2007) Things fall apart: biological species form unconnected parsimony networks. Biol Lett 3:509–512. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2007.0307

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hewitt GM (1996) Some genetic consequences of ice ages, and their role in divergence and speciation. Biol J Linn Soc 58:247–276

    Google Scholar 

  • Hueter RE, Heupel MR, Heist EJ, Keeney DB (2005) Evidence of philopatry in sharks and implications for the management of shark fisheries. J Northw Atl Fish Sci 35:239–247. doi:10.2960/J.v35.m493

    Google Scholar 

  • Iglésias SP, Toulhoat L & Sellos DY (2010) Taxonomic confusion and market mislabelling of threatened skates: important consequences for their conservation status. Aquat Conserv: Mar Freshwat Ecosyst 20:319–333. doi:10.1002/aqc.1083

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keeney DB, Heist EJ (2006) Worldwide phylogeography of the blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus) inferred from mitochondrial DNA reveals isolation of western Atlantic populations coupled with recent Pacific dispersal. Mol Ecol 15:3669–3679. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2006.03036.x

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Librado P, Rozas J (2009) DnaSP v5: a software for comprehensive analysis of DNA polymorphism data. Bioinformatics 25:1451–1452. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btp187

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McPhie RP, Campana SE (2009) Reproductive characteristics and population decline of four species of skate (Rajidae) off the eastern coast of Canada. J Fish Biol 75:223–246

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Natoli A, Cañadas A, Concepción V, Politi E, Fernandez-Navarro P & Hoelzel AR (2008) Conservation genetics of the short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) in the Mediterranean Sea and in the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean. Conserv Genet. doi 10.1007/s10592-007-9481-1

  • Nielsen R, Wakeley J (2001) Distinguishing migration from isolation: a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach. Genetics 158:885–896

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ovenden J, Kashiwagi T, Broderick D, Giles J, Salini J (2009) The extent of population genetic subdivision differs among four co-distributed shark species in the Indo-Australian archipelago. BMC Evol Biol 9:40

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Palsbøll PJ, Bérubé M, Allendorf FW (2007) Identification of management units using population genetic data. Trends Ecol Evol 22:11–16

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Palumbi SR (1994) Genetic divergence, reproductive isolation and marine speciation. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 25:547–572

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patarnello T, Volckaert F, Castilho R (2007) Pillars of Hercules: is the Atlantic-Mediterranean transition a phylogeographical break? Mol Ecol 16:4426–4444. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2007.03477.x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Posada D, Crandall KA (1998) MODELTEST: testing the model of DNA substitution. Bioinformatics 14:817–818. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/14.9.817

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Reiss H, Hoarau G, Dickey-Collas M, Wolff WJ (2009) Genetic population structure of marine fish: mismatch between biological and fisheries management units. Fish Fish 10:361–395

    Google Scholar 

  • Tamura K, Nei M (1993) Estimation of the number of nucleotide substitutions in the control region of mitochondrial DNA in humans and chimpanzees. Mol Biol Evol 10:512–526

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson JD, Higgins DG, Gibson TJ (1994) CLUSTAL W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Res 11:4673–4680

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Valsecchi E, Pasolini P, Bertozzi M, Garoia F, Ungaro N, Vacchi M, Sabelli B, Tinti F (2005) Rapid Miocene-Pliocene dispersal and evolution of Mediterranean rajid fauna as inferred by mitochondrial gene variation. J Evol Biol 18:436–446. doi:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2004.00829.x

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wearmouth VJ, Sims DW (2009) Movement and behaviour patterns of the critically endangered common skate Dipturus batis revealed by electronic tagging. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 380:77–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wheeler A (1978) Key to the fishes of Northern Europe. Frederick Warne, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Yokoyama Y, Lambeck K, De Deckker P, Johnston P, Fifield LK (2000) Timing of the last glacial maximum from observed sea-level minima. Nature 406:713–716

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to MEDITS survey programme (IEO Mallorca), and F. Neat for supporting sample collection. This work was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Oceans 2025 Strategic Research Programme Theme 6 (Science for Sustainable Marine Resources) in which DWS and MJG are Principal Investigators. Additional funding was provided by the Fishmongers Company. MJG was supported by a Great Western Research Fellowship and DWS by an MBA Senior Research Fellowship.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrew M. Griffiths.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Griffiths, A.M., Sims, D.W., Johnson, A. et al. Levels of connectivity between longnose skate (Dipturus oxyrinchus) in the Mediterranean Sea and the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean. Conserv Genet 12, 577–582 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-010-0127-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-010-0127-3

Keywords

Navigation