Genetic characterization of the hybridization betweenMytilus edulis andM. galloprovincialis on the Atlantic coast of France

Physiology and Biogeography: The Response of European Mussels (Mytilusspp.) to Climate Change*

“…have been well studied for many decades in Europe (Skibinski et al 1983, Coustau et al 1991, Gardner and Skibinski 1991, Rawson and Hilbish 1998, Daguin et al 2001, Bierne et al 2003, and their distribution in the past decade in various regions has been documented quite thoroughly. Much of this distribution was reported in Hilbish et al (2012), who sampled 97 locations along the Atlantic coast of Spain and France.…”

“…Mytilus galloprovincialis is native to the Mediterranean and is found as far north as the British Isles (Skibinski et al 1983, McDonald et al 1991, Seed 1992. The overlap of these species has created a mosaic hybrid zone, with alternating patches of hybrids and pure parental populations from the Bay of Biscay to northern Scotland (Skibinski et al 1983, Coustau et al 1991, Bierne et al 2003, Gosling et al 2008, Hilbish et al 2012. We sought to understand what controls the biogeographic distributions of these economically and ecologically important species in Europe, and how their functional performance differs within their ranges.…”

Can habitat specialisation maintain a mosaic hybrid zone in marine bivalves?

“…galloprovincialis along the Western European coast. The main feature of this zone is its mosaic structure, in which populations of pure genotypes alternate with hybrid populations , Coustau et al 1991, Daguin et al 2001. Allozyme surveys have revealed that spatial distributions of alleles at diagnostic loci (including an amino-peptidase) are correlated with environmental factors such as salinity (Skibinski 1983) or tidal height and wave exposure (Gosling & Wilkins 1981, Gardner & Skibinski 1988, Gosling & McGrath 1990, reviewed in Gardner 1994.…”

“…4, Table 1), the 2 most M. edulis samples (6 and 8) being in sites where the salinity is slightly decreased. Mosaicism is well known in this hybrid zone , Coustau et al 1991, Daguin et al 2001 in press b); however, the relationship between environmental conditions and such drastic changes in allele frequencies at a very small scale has seldom been noticed.…”

“…4, Table 1), the 2 most M. edulis samples (6 and 8) being in sites where the salinity is slightly decreased. Mosaicism is well known in this hybrid zone , Coustau et al 1991, Daguin et al 2001; however, the relationship between environmental conditions and such drastic changes in allele frequencies at a very small scale has seldom been noticed. Because of this strong introgression at locus DAMP2 in south Brittany, this locus is not informative in this area, and therefore we have simply removed it from the Hardy-Weinberg and linkage disequilibria analysis.…”