title: Absence of intrinsic post-zygotic incompatibilities in artificial crosses between sympatric coregonid species from upper Lake Constance.
abstract: A full factorial crossing experiment with five females and five males of each of two coregonid species from upper Lake Constance was used to test for intrinsic post-zygotic incompatibilities during early ontogeny. Up until shortly before hatching, there was no difference in embryo mortality between homo and heterologous crosses. A maternal effect on mortality was found in both species, but paternal effects and female-male interactions were absent. Thus, genetic incompatibility during early ontogeny does not appear to prevent introgressive hybridization, suggesting that genetic divergence between these species is maintained primarily by pre-zygotic barriers. The recent genetic homogenizations of coregonid species flocks in European alpine lakes may have been caused by a flattening of adaptive landscapes through eutrophication, but intensive stocking with larvae obtained in hatcheries from artificially fertilized eggs is also likely to be a contributing factor. To safeguard diversity among sympatric coregonids, it is important to re-establish ecological conditions conducive to species divergence and to revise traditional management strategies.
authors: Department of Biology, Limnological Institute, University of Konstanz, D-78464, Konstanz, Germany.
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Eckmann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian; D005260:Female; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D008297:Male; D012098:Reproduction / Q000235:genetics*; D012487:Salmonidae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D013045:Species Specificity; D061350:Sympatry
keywords: biodiversity; eutrophication; introgressive hybridization; speciation reversal; stocking