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Morphoecological and Genetic Differentiation among Sympatric Morphs of Whitefish in Lake Kuetsjärvi (River Pasvik Basin, Murmansk Oblast)

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Abstract

The study is focused on the differentiation morphoecological and genetic analysis of the morphs of the whitefish Coregonus lavaretus L. sensu lato (Teleostei: Salmoniformes: Coregoninae) from Lake Kuetsjärvi, located in the lower reaches of one of the largest lake-river systems in the north of Europe, Pasvik-Inari (Barents Sea basin). Four morphs of whitefish have been identified: slow and fast growing medium rakered and slow and fast growing sparsely rakered. It was shown that there is practically no differentiation in the frequencies of allozyme loci at pronounced and stable differences in the number of gill rakers, head shape, growth rate and trophic features. The results confirm the analysis of multilocus allozyme genotypes using Bayesian clustering in the Structure program, which did not reveal any differences in the proportion of initial clusters between the morphs. We consider the recent and incomplete isolation of the described morphs, the phenotypic differences of which can be determined by epigenetic features, as an explanation for the observed picture.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors express their sincere gratitude to N.Yu. Gordon for help with electrophoretic experiments and P.A. Kazimirov for advice and assistance in statistical data processing.

Funding

The work was carried out within the budget topics NIR0112-2019-0001 (allozyme analysis, VIGG RAS) and no. 122011300123-8 (description of the hydrochemical and hydrobiological characteristics of the lake, IIE NKSC RAS) and was partially supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant no. 19-77-10007 (collection of biological samples on the lake in 2020, IIE NKSC RAS)).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Industrial Ecology of the North Kola Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, 184209, Apatity, Murmansk oblast, Russia

    E. M. Zubova, N. A. Kashulin & P. M. Terentyev

  2. Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    V. V. Sokolov & D. V. Politov

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  1. E. M. Zubova
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  2. N. A. Kashulin
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  3. P. M. Terentyev
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  4. V. V. Sokolov
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  5. D. V. Politov
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Correspondence to E. M. Zubova or D. V. Politov.

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Translated by M. Shulskaya

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Zubova, E.M., Kashulin, N.A., Terentyev, P.M. et al. Morphoecological and Genetic Differentiation among Sympatric Morphs of Whitefish in Lake Kuetsjärvi (River Pasvik Basin, Murmansk Oblast). Biol Bull Rev 12 (Suppl 1), S66–S77 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079086422070118

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