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Invasion genetics of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas in the British Isles inferred from microsatellite and mitochondrial markers

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Abstract

The Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, native to northeast Asia, is one of the most important cultured shellfish species. In Europe, Pacific oysters first settled along the Atlantic coasts of France at the end of the 1960s but rapidly spread and are now widely established. Twenty-two sites in the United Kingdom (UK), Ireland, Denmark, France and Spain were sampled to assess genetic diversity and differentiation. Hatchery-propagated stocks from two hatcheries located in the UK also were included. Two main genetic clusters were identified from pairwise genetic differentiation indexes, Bayesian clustering methods or neighbour-joining analysis, based on 7 microsatellite loci: (1) a Northeast cluster (including feral samples from East England, Ireland and Denmark as well as UK hatchery stocks) and (2) a Southwest cluster (including samples from South Wales, South West England, France and Spain). The Southwest cluster had significantly higher allelic richness (A) and expected heterozygosity (H e ) (A: 45.68, H e : 0.928) than in the Northeast (A: 26.58, H e : 0.883); the two diverging by a small but significant F ST value (F ST  = 0.017, 95 % CI 0.014–0.021). A 739-bp fragment of the major noncoding region of the mitochondrial genome was sequenced in 248 oysters from 12 of the studied samples in Europe and in 25 oysters from Miyagi prefecture (Japan). A total of 81 haplotypes were found. Haplotype frequency analyses identified the same two clusters observed using microsatellites. This study highlights how the number and size of introduction events, aquaculture practices, genetic bottlenecks followed by genetic drift and natural dispersal can act concurrently to shape the genetic diversity and structure of introduced populations.

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Acknowledgments

This research was partially financed by the European Union Atlantic Area Transnational Programme (2007–2013), project SEAFARE, Grant agreement No. 2009–1/123. The authors thank José Luis Gomez and Lasse Fast Jensen for providing oysters samples from Galicia and Limfjord. The authors are very grateful to Mike Camplin, Roger Covey, Claire Guy, Philip Hollyman, Ron Jessop, Judith Kochmann, Sven Laming, Hywel Lloyd, Willie McKnight, Nigel Mortimer, Hanna Nuuttila, Francis O’Beirn, Jack Sewell, Romy Wild and Nadescha Zwerschke for help during the field work. The Bayesian clustering analysis (STRUCTURE) was conducted on the University of Oslo Bioportal. Finally, the authors are grateful to Mathias Wegner for sharing the haplotype sequences and frequency table of the Wadden Sea samples. We thank associate editor Carol Stepien for correcting the English.

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  1. Delphine Lallias

    Present address: INRA, Domaine de Vilvert, Equipe GenAqua, 78350, Jouy en Josas, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Applied Marine Sciences, School of Ocean Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Menai Bridge, Anglesey, LL59 5AB, UK

    Delphine Lallias & Jonathan W. King

  2. Unité de recherche Physiologie Fonctionnelle des Organismes Marins, Laboratoire des Sciences de l’Environnement Marin (UMR LEMAR), Ifremer, ZI de la Pointe du Diable, CS 10070, 29280, Plouzané, France

    Pierre Boudry

  3. Estação Experimental de Moluscicultura de Tavira, Divisão de Aquicultura e Valorização, Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, Av. 5 de Outubro s/n, 8700-305, Olhão, Portugal

    Frederico M. Batista

  4. School of Ocean Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Menai Bridge, Anglesey, LL59 5AB, UK

    Andy Beaumont & John R. Turner

  5. SG2M, LGPMM, Laboratoire Génétique et Pathologie des Mollusques Marins, Ifremer, Ronce-les-bains, 17390, La Tremblade, France

    Sylvie Lapègue

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Lallias, D., Boudry, P., Batista, F.M. et al. Invasion genetics of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas in the British Isles inferred from microsatellite and mitochondrial markers. Biol Invasions 17, 2581–2595 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-015-0896-1

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