Invasion genetics of the Eurasian round goby in North America: tracing sources and spread patterns

Abstract

The Eurasian round goby Neogobius melanostomus (Apollonia melanostoma) invaded the North American Great Lakes in 1990 through ballast water, spread rapidly, and now is widely distributed and moving through adjacent tributaries. We analyse its genetic diversity and divergence patterns among 25 North American (N = 744) and 22 Eurasian (N = 414) locations using mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b gene sequences and seven nuclear microsatellite loci in order to: (i) identify the invasion's founding source(s), (ii) test for founder effects, (iii) evaluate whether the invasive range is genetically heterogeneous, and (iv) determine whether fringe and central areas differ in genetic diversity. Tests include F(ST) analogues, neighbour-joining trees, haplotype networks, Bayesian assignment, Monmonier barrier analysis, and three-dimensional factorial correspondence analysis. We recovered 13 cytochrome b haplotypes and 232 microsatellite alleles in North America and compared these to variation we previously described across Eurasia. Results show: (i) the southern Dnieper River population was the primary Eurasian donor source for the round goby's invasion of North America, likely supplemented by some alleles from the Dniester and Southern Bug rivers, (ii) the overall invasion has high genetic diversity and experienced no founder effect, (iii) there is significant genetic structuring across North America, and (iv) some expansion areas show reduced numbers of alleles, whereas others appear to reflect secondary colonization. Sampling sites in Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay and Lake Ontario significantly differ from all others, having unique alleles that apparently originated from separate introductions. Substantial genetic variation, multiple founding sources, large number of propagules, and population structure thus likely aided the goby's ecological success.

Population genetics of the invasive ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi in Europe reveal source–sink dynamics and secondary dispersal to the Mediterranean Sea

“…Given the hermaphrodite mode of reproduction in M. leidyi, our findings underline the importance of reproductive strategies for invasion success, despite losses in genetic diversity (Roman & Darling 2007). Finally, our study contributes to the growing evidence that not all invasions need to be accompanied by losses of genetic diversity (Rius et al 2008, Brown & Stepien 2009) and successful invasions can vary broadly in their degree of genetic diversity (Darling et al 2008). …”

Distribution and invasion genetics of the quagga mussel (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis) in German rivers

“…If the high neutral genetic diversity corresponds to adaptive genetic variation in coding loci, then the expansion of D. rostriformis bugensis may be coupled to enhanced adaptability (Zayed and Whitfield 2008). Similar large-scale introductions, high genetic diversity and no founder effects have been found for D. rostriformis bugensis and D. polymorpha in the Great Lakes (Hebert et al 1989;Marsden et al 1995;Stepien et al 2002Stepien et al , 2005 and in Ireland (Astanei et al 2005) and have been reported for Ponto-Caspian invasive fish species in North America (Stepien et al 1998(Stepien et al , 2005Stepien and Tumeo 2006;Brown and Stepien 2009).…”

Population genetic history of the dreissenid mussel invasions: expansion patterns across North America

“…Selectively neutral molecular markers can serve as a proxy for estimating quantitative genetic variation in phenotypic traits that underlies adaptive evolution (Merila and Crnokrak 2001;Reed and Frankham 2001;Chun et al 2009). Population genetic data also are useful for elucidating the number and sources of an introduction (Stepien et al 2005;Rosenthal et al 2008;Brown and Stepien 2009), as well as determining whether changes occur during the time course of its establishment and spread (Andreakis et al 2009;Henry et al 2009). Such information can aid control efforts.…”

“…Spread of dreissenid ''mats'' on the lake floors-where they host an associated community of plants and invertebrates in their shells and interstices-has further increased benthification, markedly changing the ecosystem (Zhu et al 2006;Hebert et al 2009;Stewart et al 2009). Dreissenids likely facilitated the invasion of the round goby Neogobius melanostomus (Vanderploeg et al 2002), their natural predator that became established throughout the Great Lakes, whose populations have high genetic diversity and show no founder effect (Stepien and Tumeo 2006;Brown and Stepien 2009).…”