Genetic evidence for speciation in Japanese sand lance Ammodytes personatus:
Pleistocene isolation, temperature and current promoted speciation
Zhqiang Han1,2, Zhiyong Wang3, Takashi Yanagimoto4 and Tianxiang Gao1,2
1
Fishery College, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan, PR China
E-mail: gaotianxiang0611@163.com
2
Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao,
PR China
3
Fishery College, Jimei Universtiy, Xiamen, PR China
4
National Research Institute of Fisheries Science, Yokohama, Japan
Two divergent sympatric mtDNA lineages have been described in Japanese sand
lance Ammodytes personatus, and this high inter-lineage divergence raises questions
about the taxonomic status of A. personatus lineages in the Northwestern Pacific. In
the present study, AFLP markers were used to analyze the genetic structures of A.
personatus and the status of the two mtDNA lineages. Two hundred and eleven
individuals of A. personatus and 37 individuals of Ammodytes hexapterus were
amplified by four primer combinations. The results showed a north geographic group
and a south geographic group that were reciprocally monophyletic. Complete
reproductive isolation may exist between the two geographic groups. These results
suggest that the two groups have already reached a stage of sufficient genetic
differentiation to be considered as two distinct species. The incongruence between
nuclear groups and mitochondrial lineages suggests the two distinct lineages do not
represent cryptic species and the presence of divergent mitochondrial lineages in the
same sample is a result of secondary contact after an extended period of isolation. The
Pleistocene isolation and the biological characteristics of species may be responsible
for speciation in A. personatus.