RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Evidence of stock connectivity, hybridization and misidentification in white anglerfish support the need for adopting a genetics-informed fisheries management approach
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.02.10.430581
DO 10.1101/2021.02.10.430581
A1 Imanol Aguirre-Sarabia
A1 Natalia Díaz-Arce
A1 Iker Pereda-Agirre
A1 Iñaki Mendibil
A1 Agurtzane Urtizberea
A1 Hans D. Gerritsen
A1 Finlay Burns
A1 Ian Holmes
A1 Jorge Landa
A1 Ilaria Coscia
A1 Iñaki Quinconces
A1 Marina Santurtún
A1 Antonella Zanzi
A1 Jann T. Martinsohn
A1 Naiara Rodríguez-Ezpeleta
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/11/2021.02.10.430581.abstract
AB Genetics analyses can reveal mismatches between biological and management units and thus prevent derived ineffective management actions that could lead to serious consequences for fisheries management. Additionally, genetics could reveal other relevant but hidden information such as species misidentification or hybridization. Here, we have assessed the power of genetics to better understand the population connectivity of white angelfish (Lophius piscatorius) and its interaction with its sister species, the black anglerfish (L. budegassa). Our analyses, based on thousands of genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms, show three thus far unknown findings that are crucial for white anglerfish management. We found i) that white anglerfish is composed by a single panmictic population throughout the Northeast Atlantic, challenging the three-stock based management, ii) that a fraction of specimens classified as white anglerfish using morphological characteristics are genetically identified as black anglerfish (L. budegassa) and iii) that the two Lophius species naturally hybridize leading to a population of hybrids of up to 20% in certain areas. Our results set the basics for a genetics-informed white anglerfish assessment framework that accounts for stock connectivity, revises and establishes new diagnostic characters for Lophius species identification and evaluates the effect of hybrids in the current and future assessments of the white anglerfish.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.