Hobart

Seminar Abstract

Tuesday 15 December 2009, 11.30am (Tas time)
CSIRO Auditorium, Hobart

Jenny Ovenden
Open Molecular Fisheries Laboratory
Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries
St Lucia, Queensland

*Estimating population connectivity from genetic data when F-statistics approach zero: an example from Australian Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus commerson)

Population genetics indirectly infers population structure from the distribution and abundance of genes throughout the distribution of a species. The absolute number of immigrants per generation (N_e m) can be estimated as a measure of population connectedness, as N_e m is inversely proportional to population pairwise F_ST. Here we demonstrate that demographic (ie the proportion of immigrants per generation, m), as well as evolutionary estimates (ie N_e m), can be produced from population genetic datasets. Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus commerson) is a large, predatory and commercially valuable fish species continuously distributed along the tropical northern Australian coastline. The Wang and Whitlock (2003, Genetics 163, 429-446) method of determining immigration (m) was effective in detecting and quantifying restrictions to gene flow between populations of Spanish mackerel. The method succeeded in detecting restrictions to gene flow that could only be inferred using a weight of evidence approach from four conventional sources of information (mtDNA sequence and RFLP haplotypes, microsatellites and allozymes), but where no single data type was able to provide convincing evidence for population genetic subdivision. Sustainable levels of exploitation may be more accurately determined with demographic, as opposed to evolutionary estimates of population connectedness.

*Jenny Ovenden, Molecular Fisheries Laboratory, Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, PO Box 6097, St Lucia, Queensland, 4069 Australia.

*Rik Buckworth, Fisheries Research Laboratory, Department of Resources, GPO Box 3000, Darwin, Northern Territory, 0810 Australia

Seminar recording

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Location:
CSIRO = Marine Laboratories Auditorium, Castray Esplanade, Hobart

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Last updated 22/12/09